Photo By Master Sgt. Veronica McMahon | A pilot maneuvers a B-1B Lancer into position to receive fuel from a KC-135...... read more read more
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SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. - In just the first four months of 2011, air refueling aircraft supporting the air mission on the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility have off-loaded more than 357 million pounds of fuel to more than 26,500 receiver aircraft.
The 357 million pounds of fuel figure, which is calculated and tracked by the U.S. Air Forces Central's Combined Air Operations Center in Southwest Asia, equates to approximately 52.58 million gallons -- enough fuel to fill an F-16 Fighting Falcon to its capacity with two external tanks more than 29,750 times. Or, the same amount of fuel could also fill a C-21 jet more than 56,474 times.
Meeting the demand for the air refueling are the KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender fleets. Both airframes operate in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility from non-disclosed bases in Southwest Asia as well as Kyrgyzstan.
KC-135s and the airmen who maintain and fly them operate from multiple locations such as with the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron at a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia and the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing at the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan.
The deployed KC-10 mission, meanwhile, operates with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's 908th EARS at another non-disclosed Southwest Asia base.
Wherever they operate from, many tanker Airmen say they are proud to support the deployed air refueling mission, and they know why it's so important to provide "global power and global reach."
"We often fly long hours and in extreme weather conditions," said Capt. Sean Flynn, an Air Force Reservist and a KC-10 pilot who has deployed to the 908th EARS numerous times from the 514th Air Mobility Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. "You really see the big picture while working in the area of responsibility. It takes everyone from the base support staff, to the bus drivers, to the maintainers to help get us to the end result which is a successful mission in which we can deliver well needed gas to help the fight."
The people who direct the air refueling mission for the USCENTCOM area of responsibility are in the Air Forces Central CAOC's Air Mobility Division on the air refueling control team.
According to an AFCENT Public Affairs fact sheet about the AMD, the air refueling control team "plans and tasks air refueling missions to support theater air and space operations and coordinates air refueling planning, tasking and scheduling to support an air bridge or global attack missions within the AOR."
In 2010, AFCENT statistics show the tankers off-loaded more than 1.05 billion pounds of fuel to more than 82,600 aircraft. It was the third consecutive year of where deployed tanker forces off-loaded more than 1 billion pounds of fuel for operations -- the largest in 2008 with more than 1.1 billion pounds of fuel off-loaded.
Additionally, according to a talking paper from Air Mobility Command Headquarters at Scott AFB from May 13, mobility Airmen supporting the tanker mission have off-loaded more than 13.3 billion pounds, or 1.98 billion gallons, of fuel for operations since Sept. 11, 2001.
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 05.19.2011 13:13 |
| Story ID: | 70673 |
| Location: | SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 81 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Deployed air refuelers surpass 350 million-plus pounds of fuel delivered for 2011, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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