tankers

The TWZ Newsletter

Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.

A business jet converted into a tanker is among the options the U.S. Air Force has been considering as part of plans for a future aerial refueling ‘system of systems.’ The service is also still looking at stealthy designs and other options to meet its tanker needs going forward as the anti-air threat picture continues to expand and evolve.

“We are working on the Next Generation Air Refueling System, NGAS, as it’s effectively known. Put the finishing touches on that last year. And that was a really wide look at how we would do air refueling in the future,” Air Force Gen. John Lamontagne, head of Air Mobility Command (AMC), told TWZ and other outlets earlier this week. “When I say a wide look, looking at conventional tankers [as] we know it today, you know something like a [KC-]135 or KC-46 as is; something with a bunch of mission systems added to it, with a defense systems [sic], connectivity, intelligence and more; a business jet; a blended wing body; or a signature-managed [stealthy] tanker.”

“So, a pretty wide look at the effectiveness of those,” he added. “We still are looking at a pretty wide look.”

Lamontagne was speaking at a roundtable on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference, at which TWZ was in attendance.

To provide some quick context, the Air Force currently has some 370 KC-135s and 96 KC-46s in its inventory. The service finished retiring its fleet of KC-10s last year. Under its existing contract with Boeing, the service expects to eventually receive 188 KC-46s, and it now has plans to acquire 75 more. What will eventually replace the last of the aging KC-135s, as well as fill the gap left by the departure of the KC-10s, remains to be seen. This is where NGAS, which continues to be described as a future family of capabilities, comes in.

Both the KC-135 and the KC-46 evolved parallel to or are based on full-size jet-powered transcontinental airliner designs, as was the now-retired KC-10. The KC-135 and KC-46 are also configured to refuel receivers primarily using the boom method, though they can also dispense gas via probe-and-drogue. The boom method is the Air Force’s preferred option when it comes to topping up the tanks on fixed-wing aircraft in mid-air.

A tanker converted from a business jet could offer a comparable cruising speed and service ceiling, but with lower operating and maintenance demands. It would also be able to take off and land from shorter runways and have more limited logistical needs, offering increased flexibility. The Air Force does currently envision future high-end operations centering on dispersed and distributed concepts of operations (CONOPS), collectively referred to as Agile Combat Employment (ACE), primarily to complicate enemy targeting cycles and reduce vulnerability. The U.S. Marine Corps has also been completely restructuring its forces around similar CONOPS in recent years.

At the same time, those comparative benefits come at the cost of maximum range and on-station time, and especially to the core of its entire reason for being — the total fuel available to offload to receivers. This could be offset to a degree by being able to fly from airstrips closer to operating areas. If the business jet-based tanker is itself able to refuel in mid-air, it could be utilized as one part of a multi-tier hub-and-spoke concept. Regardless, these aircraft will never be able to compete with offload capacity of the KC-135 or KC-46.

It’s also worth noting here that not every mission necessarily requires a full airliner-sized tanker. Business jet-based types could be used primarily to support more routine activities, especially in peacetime, like training and testing, and moving small numbers of fighters from point a to point b, freeing up larger tankers for more demanding operations. Simply not having to fly bigger tankers as often would also help reduce the wear and tear on those fleets.

Lower acquisition costs could also help the Air Force buy more business jet-based tankers. Depending on how they are configured, they could also be used as light transports when not needed for aerial refueling missions.

The idea of turning business jets into tankers is not new. At the Singapore Airshow in 2010, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) presented a concept for a boom-equipped tanker based on the Gulfstream G550, with a particular eye toward supporting training needs. An IAI brochure available at the show also reportedly depicted a hub-and-spoke refueling concept of operations, with the modified G550 acting as ‘spoke’ between a larger traditional tanker and tactical jets operating closer to the front lines.

The G550 is now out of production, but Gulfstream continues to produce other models that might serve as a starting point for new tankers. There are other options on the market, too. The Air Force and other branches of the U.S. military already operate multiple Gulfstream types, as well as members of the Bombardier Challenger family. This includes highly modified types in service to perform specialized missions, like the EA-37B Compass Call electronic warfare jet and the E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN). Smaller airliners, including current-generation variants of the Boeing 737, could offer additional options for conversion into aerial refueling platforms.

There may be other, more novel avenues, as well. As part of a design challenge in 2023, the Air Force itself produced a graphic showing a business jet as one option for carrying a potential platform-agnostic boom-equipped refueling system, which could also be small enough to be fit on a tactical jet like the F-15. The service has been exploring concepts in this general vein for years now, which could also feed into a future NGAS family of systems.

As Lamontagne noted at the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference earlier this week, the Air Force is still taking “a pretty wide look” at potential NGAS options. The need for any future tanker to be able to survive in more contested environments remains top of mind for the service. The possibility of acquiring a fleet of stealthy tankers, something TWZ has long highlighted the growing need for, remains very much on the table. Tankers, as well as other critical supporting assets, would be top targets in any future major conflict, such as a potential high-end fight against China in the Pacific. On top of this, the Air Force has been publicly warning that the threat ecosystem is only set to continue expanding in the coming years, and that it predicts there to be anti-air missiles with ranges of up to 1,000 miles by 2050.

“Really, at the end of the day, we are trying to upscale and change the equation on our survivability,” Lamontagne said at the roundtable. “We’ve got to be able to go into much higher threat environments. … and so how do we do that with both the force that we have and, potentially, a new platform?”

The cost of a future stealthy tanker remains a significant factor in work on NGAS.

“The Secretary of the Air Force approved another request out to industry that was sent out just a few weeks ago with a return from industry in just a couple of weeks, and that is really to help us better understand some cost estimates,” the AMC commander added. “When we did the first analysis of alternatives on NGAS last winter, I would say those cost estimates were really rough on what a signature-managed platform might look like.”

“Is it an F-35 level of exquisite stealth with a KC-135-size platform, or something in between? Tough to cost,” he continued. “So we got some really rough costs associated with that first analysis of alternatives. This is really, at its simplest, an attempt to refine those costs, go back out to industry, and figure out what’s in the realm of the possible at the right level of signature management, if we go down that road.”

Regardless, “we still know that … our current tanker force is not going to serve us well in a high threat environment,” Lamontagne stressed. “So, we’re either going to need a really long stick, right, weapons that can go a long way and keep the tanker out of the WEZ [weapons engagement zone], or we’re going to be able to need to go in there and not just survive, but thrive.”

The timeline for fielding any NGAS capabilities, especially new tankers, whether they are converted business jets, stealthy designs, or something else, is also unclear. The Air Force’s stated goal in the past has been to begin fielding next-generation aerial refueling platforms no later than 2040, and hopefully well before then.

It’s also important to point out here that U.S. military officials have been warning for years now already about strains on the Air Force’s existing tanker fleets and raising concerns about its capacity to meet even existing demands. This has been compounded in part by persistent technical issues and quality control problems with the KC-46. The Air Force, as well as the U.S. Navy, has been making increasing use of private contractors in recent years to bolster their ability to meet non-combat-related aerial refueling needs.

At least as of this week, “just about every option is on the table” to help meet the Air Force’s still evolving requirements for NGAS, according to Lamontagne.

Contact the author: [email protected]

The TWZ Newsletter

Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has said it will seek to buy two more Boeing KC-46A Pegasus tankers from the United States, as it invests in its fleet of in-flight refueling tankers, heavily utilized in the recent campaign against Iran, as well as for other long-range combat missions and domestic ones. While Israel has already committed to buying four KC-46s, it currently relies on a dwindling fleet of veteran Boeing 707 tankers. The 12-day war against Iran earlier this year, in particular, led to questions about Israeli Air Force (IAF) aerial refueling capacity, and the U.S. government was forced to deny that it had provided additional tanker support for the operation.

“The fifth and sixth [KC-46] refueling aircraft will strengthen the IAF — the IDF’s long-range strategic arm — enabling it to reach distant theaters with greater force and scope,” said Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, earlier this week.

Baram was announcing re-equipment plans that also include additional armored vehicles and first-person-view (FPV) drones. The KC-46 acquisition is set to move forward once approval has been granted by Israel’s Defense Procurement Ministerial Committee. Valued at a reported $500 million, the tanker deal will be funded through U.S. financial aid.

The “new aircraft will be equipped with Israeli systems and adapted to the Israeli Air Force’s operational requirements,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense added.

Ido Nehushtan, president of Boeing Israel, told Breaking Defense that the company “takes pride in its longstanding partnership with Israel, a relationship that dates back to the nation’s establishment. The KC-46A tanker aircraft will provide the world’s most advanced multi-mission aerial refueling capability to the IAF.”

Back in 2020, the U.S. State Department approved the potential sale of eight KC-46As to Israel, with the entire package having an estimated price tag of $2.4 billion.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the U.S. Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said at the time. “This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.”

A year later, Israel formally approved plans for its first order of KC-46s. Israel reportedly also inquired about whether it could take delivery of its first pair of KC-46s from a lot the U.S. Air Force had already contracted Boeing to build. This would allow the IAF to get these aircraft earlier than would otherwise be possible.

Finally, in 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Boeing a $930-million contract for the first four KC-46s for Israel, with deliveries due before the end of 2026.

It’s unclear to what degree Israel’s procurement timeline for the KC-46 has been affected by the type’s well-publicized problems in U.S. service, but the move to increase the purchase signals confidence in the program and will be a boon for Boeing as it seeks further foreign sales for the type.

By the time the first IAF KC-46s arrive, they are expected to be fitted with the next-generation version of the critical Remote Vision System (RVS) that has proven so challenging to perfect. Ironically, the Israeli 707s that the KC-46 will replace have long used a locally developed RVS that has apparently proven very effective, and which you can read more about here and here.

Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that the IAF badly needs a successor for its 707 fleet, these aircraft being known locally as the Re’em (oryx in Hebrew).

Today’s Re’em fleet first entered service in 1979, with then-newer 707-300 airframes replacing previous 707-100s. These aircraft were acquired from commercial airlines before being modified locally for aerial refueling. The conversion was done by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Additional airframes were acquired and upgraded to tankers as recently as the 2010s, but the most worn-out examples are already being retired.

In addition to aerial refueling, the IAF’s 707s have a critical role as a command-and-control station and communications node. The aircraft carries a satellite communications suite to provide critical, secure beyond-line-of-sight communications with appropriately equipped tactical aircraft like the F-15 and F-16, and command centers far away. This is also highly important for long-range strike operations. The reference to the KC-46 being fitted with “Israeli systems and adapted to the Israeli Air Force’s operational requirements” may well be a reference to similar C2 and communications modifications.

As of today, Israel is understood to have no more than seven 707 tankers in service, with satellite imagery of Nevatim Airbase dating from late last year showing five examples visible there.

This means that the Re’em is more valuable to the IAF than ever, especially for its long-range strike capabilities, a point underscored by recent Israeli operations in the Middle East.

As well as the campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, codenamed Operation Rising Lion, which involved round-trip flights of around 2,000 miles, the IAF has flown other high-profile long-range attacks against targets across the region, since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. This has included raids against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Footage From the Refueling Aircraft on the Way to Strike Houthi Military Targets in Yemen

The Israeli Air Force’s refueling aircraft have been operating in all arenas in the war, providing fighter jets with flexibility in strikes and aerial operations at any distance.

Yesterday… pic.twitter.com/o8TRNAtC8l

— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) September 30, 2024

The demand for tanker capacity to support these operations, as well as other assignments and routine and training activities, led to speculation that the U.S. Air Force might be assisting Israel in this regard.

In the wake of the 12-day war with Iran, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a flat-out denial that it provided any such support for the IAF during the conflict.

A U.S. Air Force spokesperson stated the following in response to TWZ’s inquiry into the matter:

“The U.S. Air Force routinely conducts training operations alongside allies and partners within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The Israeli Air Force routinely participates in these exercises and operations at various levels; however, U.S. aerial refueling platforms do not conduct in-flight refueling operations with the IAF.”

There are still claims that the U.S. did in fact provide some tanking during the 12-Day War. Regardless, provided the USAF’s denial is fully accurate, it makes the IAF’s ability to sustain a high tempo of operations and achieve significant effects over such great distances all the more remarkable.

Meanwhile, it remains undeniable that the U.S. military has an unmatched ability to provide Israel with tanking capacity, if there were a plan to do so. With KC-46 deliveries continuing, and with the Pegasus looking to be on track for further U.S. orders, under what has been termed the ‘bridge tanker’ requirement, the aircraft is increasingly becoming the backbone of the U.S. Air Force’s tanker fleet.

With Israel now moving to grow its KC-46 orders, this should speed the process of retiring the fast-aging 707s and providing much-needed modernization for the Israeli Air Force’s aerial refueling capacity.

Contact the author: [email protected]

A emergency vehicles races north on the Pacific Coast Highway as thousands of structures were reduced to rubble by four Southern California wildfires in Los Angeles County in January. Hot, dry conditions across the West prompted officials to dispatch more crews to battle blazes Sunday. File photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 10 (UPI) — Four C-130 military aircraft equipped with firefighting equipment have been deployed to battle a series of wildfires in the western United States as triple digit temperatures and low humidity readings combine to create conditions for blazes to spark and spread rapidly, government officials reported Sunday.

Two of the large tanker planes have been deployed from the Colorado Springs Airtanker base and the other pair from Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Ariz.

There are currently 37 large wildfires burning across the United States, which have prompted officials to deploy 374 crews, 975 engines, 125 helicopters and 13 incident management teams to battle the blazes, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Nearly 43,000 fires have blackened more than 3.6 million acres across the country in 2025. That is nearly twice as many fires as last year, but the blazes this wildfire season have burned nearly half as many acres.

Forecasters predict wind gusts of up to 25 mph and single digit humidity readings in the Four Corners area will persist into the first part of the week, heightening the danger, creating conditions for fires to spread.

“Lighter winds, but still dry conditions are expected across the rest of the Great Basin and into the central Rockies,” the NIFC said Sunday.

“Hot, above normal temperatures and low (relative humidity) will spread across most of California and southern Oregon away from the coast.”

There are seven fires burning in California and Colorado, 6 in Arizona, 5 in Idaho and three fires each in Washington, Utah and Nevada.

Firefighters routinely battle challenging terrain in addition to the weather, making it especially difficult to contain fires in the most remote areas.