MH-47s may also be employed in so-called 'fat cow' operations in which they are fitted with additional internal fuel bladders and deployed as a static, on the ground, refueling point for other air assets. In the system the receiver aircraft, at one time an Airspeed Courier, trailed a steel cable which was then grappled by a line shot from the tanker, a Handley Page Type W10. [16], This air-to-air refueling system was used by the B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II of the 43rd Bomb Wing to make its famous first non-stop around-the-world flight in 1949. The valves in the probe and drogue that are most commonly used are to a NATO standard and were originally developed by the company Flight Refuelling Limited in the UK and deployed in the late 1940s and 1950s. Two side by side tracks over central Saudi Arabia called "Prune" and "Raisin" featured 2–4 basket equipped KC-135 tankers each and were used by Navy aircraft from the Red Sea Battle Force. The aircraft is one of a handful of HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, Black Hawk helicopters modified for long range search and rescue. Off center disengagements, like engagements, can cause the drogue to "prang" the probe and/or strike the aircraft's fuselage. Tankers can be equipped with multipoint hose-and-drogue systems allowing two (or more) aircraft to refuel simultaneously, reducing time spent refueling by as much as 75% for a four aircraft strike package.[27].
Flight Magazine archive, January 10, 1929, Flight Magazine archive, July 3, 1931, p. 623, Note — on one flight there was a high westerly wind and no need for aerial refueling, note — even today there is much confusion about how this system actually worked, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Operations and aircraft design towards greener civil aviation using air-to-air refuelling", "Seventy Five Years of Inflight Refueling", "flight march - receiver aircraft - advertisements flight - 1947 - 0392 - Flight Archive", "imperial airways - 1940 - 1219 - Flight Archive", "flight - lucky lady - flight refuelling - 1949 - 0461 - Flight Archive", "50 Years of Probe and Drogue Flight Refuelling cover signed Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Knight KCB AFC FRAES", "HY-6 (Hongzhaji You-6) Aerial Refueling Tanker", "Air Force Aerial Refueling Methods: Flying Boom versus Hose-and-Drogue", "Canadian military unable to refuel new jets in mid-air", "Israel's First Strike on Iran's Nuclear Facilities – Part 1 - Defense Media Network", "The Plane that Flew for 62 Days and the T-Bird that Saved the Day", https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/egypt-demonstrates-aerial-refuelling-for-combat-aircraft, https://adbr.com.au/indonesia-seeks-new-heavy-air-refuelling-tanker/, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aerial_refueling&oldid=986517882, Articles lacking in-text citations from March 2009, Articles with limited geographic scope from August 2017, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles needing additional references from April 2012, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2011, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Commercial tankers are occasionally used by military forces.
Combat aircraft operating from airfields with shorter runways must limit their takeoff weight, which could mean a choice between range (fuel) and combat payload (munitions).
In most combat situations, speed is a necessity for optimal completion of the mission at hand. USAF KC-135 and French Air Force KC-135FR refueling-boom equipped tankers can be field converted to a probe-and-drogue system using a special adapter unit.