Palestine Motion has claimed that RAF plane primarily based at Brize Norton are concerned in refuelling Israeli fighter jets, citing this as justification for his or her latest sabotage of two RAF Voyagers.
Nevertheless, the technical foundation of this declare is fake. The Royal Air Drive’s Voyager tankers are bodily incompatible with Israeli Air Drive plane.
The RAF operates the Voyager KC2 and KC3, which use the probe-and-drogue technique of aerial refuelling. This method entails a versatile hose with a drogue basket that extends from the tanker. Receiving plane should be fitted with a refuelling probe that connects with the drogue to tackle gasoline. This technique is customary throughout the UK and NATO for plane such because the Hurricane, F-35B, and different appropriate platforms.
Israeli fighter plane, together with the F-15 and F-16, use the flying growth technique. This entails a inflexible, steerable growth extending from the tanker plane, which connects to a receptacle on the receiving jet. Israel makes use of transformed Boeing 707s and has just lately begun working KC-46 tankers, each of that are geared up with flying growth programs.
The 2 programs are usually not interchangeable. RAF Voyagers would not have booms and can’t be modified to hold them with out in depth structural redesign. It isn’t a matter of operational secrecy or political alignment. It’s a fundamental query of engineering. A Voyager can’t refuel an Israeli F-15 any greater than a diesel pump can refuel a petroleum engine.
A defence supply aware of RAF refuelling operations stated: “There is no such thing as a compatibility between British and Israeli refuelling programs. Even when there have been political will, the tools merely doesn’t work collectively.”
The declare that British tankers are supporting Israeli missions from RAF Akrotiri or elsewhere is subsequently not supported by both operational proof or mechanical feasibility. In observe, RAF Voyagers are used to assist UK operations within the Center East, together with Operation Shader towards Islamic State, and to refuel British plane akin to Typhoons on Fast Response Alert obligation.
Whereas Palestine Motion could imagine the plane are concerned in Israeli army exercise, their claims don’t stand as much as scrutiny. The RAF doesn’t refuel Israeli plane.
