I do wonder why it can’t be ammended to allow the pods to be purchased under the lease agreement so they are technically not RAF property but rather supplied by the tanker consortium.

I don’t think that’s quite the issue. Maybe if you were to pay AirTanker the equivalent of operating the A330 each time you used an A400M you could do it, but it wouldn’t be cheap.

With the FI it’s a complex problem anyway. Who knows, in future the need for a tanker might be taken away for good, as I suspect the Typhoon’s fuel economy and ability to use the other airfield on the island (as the Phantoms did) is considerably better than the F3.

Correct. It does seem odd that they’d take them out of service when they are proving useful in Afghanistan, which is what the rebudgeting was mainly aimed at. I guess the new Reapers and Sentinels will will the gap there.

Yep, I don’t think there’s a gap there now.

Brize Ntn may not have as many movements as any decent size regional airport. However its inadequate passenger and cargo handling facillities are already at full stretch.

Yep – that’s exactly what does limit movements. A problem that needs to be solved ASAP (or perhaps before Lyneham closes at least).:)

is lyneham still set for the chop too?

Already been set in stone for quite a while that it’s closing late in 2012 – and at least on paper we’re not losing any capability with Lyneham’s closure, as it’s all moving to Brize.

Advanced Tanker Program: Operational Assessment
June 2005 by CAS, Inc. for EADS North America
(I have posted this & others before)
Tanker Staging Bases
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8486/tankerstagingbases.png

I will not comment on the accuracy of the data other than to say differenent sources have somewhat varying numbers. For example, the CAS, Inc./EADS North America document credits Incirlik AB, Turkey with 7 KC-767 vs 5 KC-30 where as Boeing provided sources credit the same AB with 7 KC-767 vs 4 KC-30.

BUT ramp space is not the only factor to consider. Tarmac PCN (not just runway but ALL tarmac tankers would use at the airfield). Many airfileds have runways with higher PCN than much of the tarmac throughout the airfield .

That table shows how much building has gone on at Al Udeid since 2005!

Hadn’t quite realised how big PSAB was in Saudi either. It could only take 103 KC-30s/158 KC-767s!

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/docs/971024-001.html

Article from 1997. Listed in the article as “AFSOC’s AMC tanker liaison officer”. Wait he’s a Lt. Colonel, but in the article above he’s a chief? Something is amiss. N/M, it was Chief of Operations which is a completely different moniker.

Ah, righto, so probably a full Colonel and then time for one or two stars after that (the outright boss of the TACC is a 2*)? Relatively recent though.

I wonder if he’s currently looking for a consultancy/directorship as many retired senior officers do?:)

I think the review will be at least a year after the election – mid 2011 perhaps?

I’m not sure that we have that luxury. We’ve run out of cash already, and need to make changes asap.

We don’t want to put our assets in one or a few location for obvious reasons….eggs in one basket theory, but we do want to use several strategic locations

No one’s told the current USAF staff then, looking at a well known AOR in the world. 😉

…and a gem from the blog:

While we have highly capable KC-767 tankers flying in operational squadrons in Japan

Steady on, they’ve only got three airframes! Even the RAF put more than one or two aeroplanes in a Sqn (I suspect our 4 C-17s were a record until they grew to six)!:D