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MARINE CORPS BASE Hawaii – In a historic first, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (reinforced) partnered with Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 and the U.S. Air Force’s 535th Airlift Squadron to conduct a special fueling operations proof of concept using the Tactical Aviation Ground Refueling System (TAGRS) at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin on August 17, 2022.
During the special fueling operations, Marines used the TAGRS to transfer excess fuel from the wing of a U.S. Air Force C-17 to a still-running U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey at a rate of 178 gallons per minute. At this rate, Marines can fully refuel an MV-22 in ten minutes or less. As a result, the forward arming and refueling point (FARP) increased its ability to quickly refuel aircraft, facilitating the generation of additional sorties in support of missions elsewhere.
Critical to both the U.S. Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO) and the U.S. Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment warfighting concepts, FARPs are established to position fuel and munitions distribution points in austere, expeditionary environments that otherwise lack aviation ground support infrastructure. This special fueling operation demonstrated the operationally strategic value of the MV-22 in EABO, the C-17 as a strategic enabler to the tactical distribution of fuel, and how the Joint Force can enhance and distribute lethality during distributed maritime operations throughout the Indo-Pacific Theater.
“Forward arming and refueling points are especially salient in EABO, because they increase the operational reach of aviation forces, add resilience to aviation logistics, increase sortie-generation rates in operating areas, and increase flexibility in the use of aviation.”
-U.S. Marine Corps Tentative Manual for EABO
The TAGRS, first used in 2018, is an all-in-one expeditionary refueling system, enabling Marines to establish an operational FARP in as little as five minutes. Coupled with strategic lift assets from the U.S. Air Force and the use of the “wet-wing” refueling technique as demonstrated during this SFO demonstration, the Joint Force can conduct longer-range distributed aviation operations in contested environments.
For the Marines and the MV-22, the TAGRS reduces reliance on standard fuel storage and distribution points, increasing the effectiveness of EABO, which envisions an array of highly-mobile, low-signature, and lethal capabilities distributed throughout the area operations to seize key maritime terrain while holding adversarial targets at risk.
VMM-268 is an MV-22 Osprey squadron of Marine Aircraft Group 24, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, currently deployed as the Aviation Combat Element, Marine Rotational Force-Darwin 22.2. In garrison, the squadron is based at Marine Corps Air Station – Kaneohe Bay, HI.
MWSS-371 is an aviation ground support unit of Marine Aircraft Control Group 38, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, stationed at Marine Corps Air Station – Yuma, AZ.
The 535th Airlift Squadron flies the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to provide airlift throughout the Indo-Pacific Theater. The squadron is a unit of the U.S. Air Force’s 15th Wing and is based at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, HI.
| Date Taken: | 08.26.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2022 16:44 |
| Story ID: | 428169 |
| Location: | HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 362 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, VMM-268 MV-22 Ospreys Conduct Joint Special Fueling Operations, Refuel Directly from 535th Airlift Squadron’s C-17 Globemaster III in Historic Proof of Concept Demonstration, by MAJ Jordan Fox, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
