aerial refueling. Why?

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Why is it considered better/more efficient than simply launching a mission from a closer location, where you won’t need refueling?

In: Technology

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because it’s a lot cheaper to put a flying tanker in the air than it is to put more airbases in more locations. Plus extending the range of things is always useful and you might not want the overhead of having to land and relaunch.

Anonymous 0 Comments

A lot of military craft don’t have huge ranges due to their relatively small size and if there is no where appropriate to land then they just wouldn’t make it without aerial refueling.

They’d be spotted if they landed.

Speed.

So that they can remain constantly operational e.g. AWACS planes (or whatever they’re called nowadays).

Anonymous 0 Comments

Who says you have the necessary equipment in the right spot?

The 19 of the United State’s 20 B2 bombers are based out of a single airbase in Missouri. They need fancy climate controlled hangars for maintenance along with not letting non-cleared people get too close to the cool stealth stuff, its just easier to keep them all in one spot.

So what if you need to get a B-2 to drop some ordinance on Afghanistan? You could have it fly to Germany, land, refuel, get the maintenance it needs done simply because it landed, take off, fly to Afghanistan, drop its load, fly back to Germany, refuel and do a bit more maintenance, then fly back to Missouri. Orrrr you just have it fly over Germany where a KC-130 will spend a couple minutes refueling its tank at its cruising altitude and cruising speed potentially saving you a few hours due to not needing to slow down, descend, land, take off, climb, and speed up.

And you’ve kept your fancy toys out of reach of anyone nefarious

Anonymous 0 Comments

> simply launching a mission from a closer location,

Oh sure, just go over to your military airfield in whatever adjacent country where you keep all your relevant strike aircraft and do the mission from there.

Except… those don’t actually exist. The US is somewhat unique in the number of bases on foreign soil, and even they don’t have them *everywhere*. In the Falkland Islands War the UK didn’t have the option of launching from a closer location because they couldn’t just magic up territory over there.

Anonymous 0 Comments

1) You might not have a closer base from which to launch your aircraft, and smaller aircraft have smaller fuel tanks on average so they don’t have the same range as long range bombers and tankers.

2) If the plane is a very expensive one (like a B-2), it is better to keep it out farther out of reach from your enemies when possible.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because people are trying to kill you.

Imagine if we live in a sci-fi future and there are these alien tanks that randomly patrol the wilderness hunting down what;s left of humanity. You have a house, wife, and kid in those woods that you are trying to protect. So.. because you don’t want the house getting shot up by alien tanks every day you go out a few miles – well out of sight of the house – and set up to watch for tanks. If you see one you can shoot it before it gets to the house.

Sound good so far? Well what happens when you need to get a bite to eat or take a piss? Are you going to go home? No… you will piss in the woods. You will bring a packed sandwich. That’s mid-air refueling.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Fun fact: the SR-71 was designed to require aerial refueling. The fuel tank would leak fuel at ambient temperatures, but once the SR-71 was in flight and the plane began to heat up, the fuel tank would expand and seal itself. At this point, the plane would refuel in the air then complete its mission.