Australian tankers to get automatic midair refueling capability
The project is a two-year program to develop an automatic refueling capability for the KC-30’s aerial refueling boom system and is one of four strategies in Airbus DS’s program for a smarter multirole tanker designed to increase the capability of the aircraft without major modifications.
“The automatic air-to-air refueling system is easily retrofitted to our existing aircraft, involving minor hardware changes and upgrades to software,” Davies said.
Two years… Easy. It remind me the push frwd on the A400…
Alonso of Airbus DS also used the occasion to formally launch the SMARTer tanker concept, which is based on four key strategies. Other than the automatic air-to-air refueling system, these include:
Development of the multirole tanker transport as a command and control node.
Big data, which involves the expansion of the A330’s central maintenance computer to include mission equipment, in an effort to provide data for the development of a predictive maintenance program.
A “SpaceDataHighway,” which will improve the communications capabilities of the aircraft, including wideband satellite communications.
I had more in mind that a tanker would try to stay discreet limiting its emissions as much as possible… This C2 project just light a bright candle on the tanker crew.
Source:
DefenseNews.com
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