New refueling partnership.
Brian Everstine
Credit: David Chua/MAphotoSG
A U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52 bomber will link up with a Republic of Singapore Air Force Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) on Feb. 17 as part of a broad U.S.-partner push to expand the ability of aircraft to receive fuel from tankers of international operators.
The B-52 is coming to the region for a display at the Singapore Airshow and will fly with the A330, separately, from the event. The B-52 will not connect with the tanker, but it is an early step toward certifying the nuclear bomber with the Singaporean refueler, says U.S Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces.
Once certified, it will mark the first U.S. nuclear bomber cleared to refuel from the MRTT.
Wilsbach’s goal is to have all allied and partner aircraft certified to receive from all available tankers.
“Let’s give fuel or receive fuel and let’s not worry too much about where did the tanker come from, or where did the receiver come from,” he says. “But in order to do that, you have to certify all the platforms with all the platforms.”
Much work will be needed to get to that point, and it will move slowly, he says.
“You don’t just do that off the cuff or on the fly. You make sure that you’ve done the engineering work and everything’s [going to] work, so you don’t end up damaging or losing a very valuable asset. So we go pretty slow on those,” he says.
The A330 MRTT is already certified for several U.S. aircraft, including the Boeing C-17, E-3 and P-8A, Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35A, and the A-10, B-1B, F-15 and F-16. Thirteen countries fly the Airbus tanker, and a variant of the aircraft from Lockheed Martin is an entrant in the Air Force’s KC-Y program to follow-on after all 179 planned KC-46s are delivered.
