DEFENSE - Abdonline

(HASC), and the Congressional Research
Service, either declined to speak to
Aviation Aftermarket Defense Magazine
on the subject, or would speak only on
background. We received the same
response from several Senators and
Congresspersons, and their staffers,
known to address such issues of national
defense.
Nevertheless, off-the-record
briefings, the public record,
conversations with members of the
aerial refueling community and defense
analysts, and the Haddon-Cave Review
taken together make it possible to come
to reasonable conclusions about the
mechanisms in place to identify safety
issues and the potential for system
failures in U.S. aerial refueling
operations.
SAFETY FIRST
In 1978, a small group of military and
civilian aerial refueling experts
interested in furthering the safety and
efficiency of refueling operations met at
Strategic Air Command Headquarters in
Omaha, Nebraska. The group began
developing common standards for
refueling operations and equipment,
and it grew to become the Aerial
Refueling Systems Advisory Group
(ARSAG).
ARSAG's first technical document,
issued in 1985, was written in response
to a request that the U.S. Air Force
received from the Federal Republic of
Germany (West Germany) to conduct
KC-135 refueling operations with a West
German Luftwaffe Panavia Tornado.
ARSAG developed the standards for the
procedures and equipment employed in
the refueling. In the years since, ARSAG
has developed the standards for all
phases of aerial refueling that are used
by United States, NATO members, and
other air forces around the globe.
Now known as ARSAG International,
the organization is chartered as a
Department of Defense Joint
Standardization Board (JSB) under the
Defense Standardization Program (DSP).
AIRCRAFT REFUELING
Through this JSB mandate, ARSAG
develops standards, procedures, military
specifications, and NATO
Standardization Agreements (STANAGS)
and designs aerial refueling systems.
ARSAG standards for NATO's air-to-air
refueling are codified in ATP-3.3.4.2 and
ATP-56(B), last updated in January of
2010. The document sets airspeeds for
refueling, light signals, and all other
operational procedures.
From rendezvous to breakaway,
every facet of aerial refueling and every
emergency procedure is defined by
ARSAG, both for fixed-wing and rotary
aircraft. (Refueling standards for tilt-rotor
aircraft are in development.) ARSAG also
develops maintenance standards for
refueling equipment. The group works
year round, and it holds an annual
meeting that draws civilian and military
members from as many as eighteen
countries for panels and seminars.
Aerial refueling also is provided via
private contractors to the U.S. Navy and
U.S. Marine Corps. Omega Air, of
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