Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: gandy@tellab5.TELLABS.COM (John Gandy)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: NATO air refueling methods
Keywords: Both types seem to be in use?
Message-ID: <11120@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 4 Nov 89 04:12:08 GMT
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From: gandy@tellab5.TELLABS.COM (John Gandy)


In the October 30 Aviation Week & Space Tech. (pgs. 35 & 42), a French
Mirage F1 and a West German Tornado are shown equiped with the "fly-to-
drogue" air refueling probe. This is the method used by the US Navy in
which the aircraft to be refueled flys its probe into a basket-like 
drogue trailed from the tanker A/C. The USAF aircraft of NATO, however,
use the "boom-to-recepticle" method in which the tanker's boom operator
"flys" the refueling boom into a stationary aircraft's recepticle.

My question is does NATO support both methods using two types of tanker
aircraft or is there some dual method version out there? If there are two
tanker types operating I can imagine a horendous logistics problem should
a conflict arise.


--John Gandy