Aerial Refueling Boom Pods That Could Go On F-15s In The Works

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Aerial Refueling ***** Pods That Could Go On F-15s In The Works

The U.S. Air Force recently awarded contracts to two companies for work on SHARK ‘buddy store’ podded aerial refueling systems able to work with aircraft that use

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to get gas in flight. The service has been

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now, which could turn a host of different aircraft, including crewed tactical jets like the F-15, as well as drones, into small tankers amid

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that would only grow further in a future high-end ******.

On August 27, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded

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a contract valued at $3,193,251 for work

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(SHARK). Two days later, Leidos subsidiary

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from AFRL valued at $2,677,093. Aviation Week‘s Steve Trimble

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the initial SHARK contract to Legionnaire International.

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A Boeing KC-46 tanker refuels a US Air Force A-10 Warthog ground ******* aircraft via the ***** method during a test. USAF

Both SHARK contract award notices simply say they have to do with a “small form factor fuel transfer mechanism that fits inside of a modular, platform agnostic, podded, outer mold line.” The overall requirements and objectives for the SHARK effort are unknown. It is also unclear whether Legionnaire International and Dynetics are now working separately or cooperatively. The War Zone has reached out to Legionnaire International, Leidos, and AFRL for more information.

SHARK looks to be related, at least in part, to an Air-to-Air Refueling Mechanism (A2RM) Digital Design Challenge that

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, an Air Force technology incubator within AFRL, announced last year. A2RM “aims to leverage recent technological advancements in automated aerial refueling to modernize fuel transfer systems for smaller, more flexible refueling capabilities” and “initial scoping for design considerations should focus on preliminary use for the F-15,”

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.

The A2RM challenge, which stopped taking submissions in January and that AFWERX said previously it expected would lead to a showcase of down-selected proposals sometime in March-April of this year, included four specific focus areas. These were Innovative ***** / Receptacle & Probe / Drogue Technologies, Fuel Transfer Mechanism Controllability, Platform-Agnostic Interfaces, and Smart Sensors & Integrations.

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The projected schedule for A2RM as of November 2023. USAF

While the exact relationship between SHARK and A2RM is unclear, the latter effort

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an extremely similar-sounding “highly platform agnostic “podded” and “internally stowable” system that “needs to stow within system Outer Mold Line (OML).” The entire “apparatus” would be “capable of a *****/receptacle refueling (at a minimum), with a ******* for dual *****/receptacle and probe/drogue refueling.”

Further requirements included a 36-inch diameter and a 230-inch length to enable the possibility of the entire system fitting inside a modified 600-gallon drop tank. The “objective is to fit in [an] even smaller profile of ~330 gal external fuel tank (more universally used across USAF & USN),” according to AFWERX. One A2RM graphic, seen below, also showed a notional gondola-like system with what looked to be a retractable and/or collapsible refueling *****. A business jet was also depicted as a potential platform to carry the system, along with a larger twin-engine airliner/commercial freighter-type design and various tactical combat jets, including the stealthy

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and

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.

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The A2RM challenge further outlined an interest in “solutions that stow their own fuel, solutions that receive fuel from host aircraft, and especially interested in capabilities that can do both,” as well as ones “compatible with fielded refueling technology (relative navigation sensors, pumps/valves, automation, station keeping systems, etc)” and that “leverage technology that can be matured & [made] integratable” no later than Fiscal Year 2026.

It is important to note that buddy store aerial refueling pods

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, but historically have been designed around

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. Probe-and-drogue is the predominant method employed by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, as well as many U.S. allies and partners.

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However, the vast majority of U.S. Air Force aircraft use the ***** method, instead. Booms offer a faster fuel transfer rate, reducing the time tankers and receivers (especially larger ones like ********, cargo aircraft, and even other tankers) have to be linked, reducing their vulnerability. ***** tankers are also therefore able to top up more total aircraft in less overall time than it would take with a probe-and-drogue system.

The Air Force has already been exploring podded aerial refueling capabilities to support receivers configured for the ***** method at some level since at least 2019. Last year, in its proposed budget for the 2024 Fiscal Year, the Air Force

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that it had completed a design for what it described as a “small, pod-mounted tactical air refueling *****,” but provided no further details. The current status of that project and how it may or may not relate to SHARK is unknown.

It’s also worth pointing out that a future SHARK pod might not feature a ***** as it is traditionally understood. The website for an entity called

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says that it is a “student team” that “first came together through the University of Colorado Boulder’s Designing for Defense program” and subsequently “worked hand in hand with the US Air Force Research Laboratory to design a Small Hybrid Aerial Refueling Kit (SHARK) prototype.” That prototype design, called Vampire, involved a “controllable end effector” that “will be able to refuel any NATO aircraft, including those that traditionally require a 30’+ ***** directed into the receptacle,” according to TactiFuel.

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US Air Force personnel work on a KC-135 tanker’s refueling *****. USAF

Overall, “the USAF aims to leverage recent technological advancements in automated aerial refueling to modernize fuel transfer systems for smaller, more flexible refueling capabilities,” according to one AFWERX notice about the A2RM challenge. “These new systems will enable the USAF to perform tactical refueling missions akin to the ******* States Navy’s (USN) buddy tanking, enable automated aerial refueling capabilities, and provide flexibility for mission planners & ****** strike packages, to name a few. … The capability is primarily intended to refuel medium to small ‘fighter’ sized aircraft.”

There are questions about the general viability and practicality of a buddy aerial refueling store that can top up aircraft equipped to get fuel via the ***** method. To this day, *****-equipped tankers have dedicated operators who ensure the connections with receiving aircraft are made safety.

Historically, those individuals have been physically positioned at the rear of tankers to have a clear view of what they are doing.

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the hybrid 2D/3D Remove Vision System (RVS) on Boeing

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, which ***** operators use to perform

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, underscore

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in this type of aerial refueling. A smaller, lighter, shorter, and/or collapsible ***** might present additional challenges by presenting a less robust link and putting the receiver closer to the aircraft carrying the pod. The booms on traditional tankers have been known to break under the wrong circumstances, as was just recently seen in a mishap off the coast of California last month. Altogether, no matter how the SHARK pod is configured, actually employing one attached to a single-seat tactical jet, or a pilotless drone, could be a challenging proposition.

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In this context, A2RM’s focus on the F-15 platform as the carrier makes good sense, as a two-seat combat jet like the F-15E Strike Eagle or F-15EX Eagle II could better manage this workload thanks to the additional crew member. F-15-series jets are also

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with

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.

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, as well as

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, have been actively working on technology to increasingly automate the process of refueling in mid-air by *****,

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showing how

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to gas-up drones, as well. It’s also worth noting here that the ability to refuel drones in flight and for drones to refuel other aircraft (including other uncrewed ones) in mid-air using the probe-and-drogue method

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. The Navy is in the process of acquiring

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that will use probe-and-drogue buddy stores.

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Whether a podded ***** refueling system would be able to carry a useful amount of fuel to offload is another open question. At the same time, The War Zone

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how drones, in particular, equipped with a buddy store like this could be used in a hub-and-spoke arrangement, ferrying fuel from tankers operating outside of the range of ****** threats to receivers operating at the tactical edge.

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, which the U.S. Air Force has also been exploring, would help push this layered tanking concept into more contested airspace.

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A rendering of a stealth *****-equipped next-generation tanker concept. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works via Aviation Week

Overall, the potential value of a distributed tanking ecosystem for the U.S. military, as well as its allies and partners, only looks set to grow amid expanding and evolving air defense threats among near-peer competitors

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and

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, as well as smaller adversaries

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and

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. This, in turn, will also create additional demands for more and better ways to get fuel to stealthy platforms operating in higher-risk areas, while also keeping prized aerial refueling assets safe.

In a potential future high-end ****** against China in the Pacific, there would be an

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further magnified by Air Force and other friendly aircraft operating in a distributed manner to help reduce their vulnerability to ****** attacks. Traditional tankers would have to operate very far forward to support new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations

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, including Air Force ones collectively referred to as

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. Larger aircraft may not be able to land at many forward operating locations, either.

Buddy stores that can refuel aircraft via the ***** method would offer a valuable organic asset to those forward-deployed forces, even if just for topping off after launch. This would also help enable tactical aircraft to take off with more stores (but less fuel) from shorter runways and still be able to reach their target areas. These are tactics that U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft can leverage now using probe-and-drogue buddy stores, as well as smaller C-130-based tankers.

In addition, the Air Force continues to face shortfalls in overall aerial refueling capacity

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. This, in turn, has now

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about its ability to provide gas-on-the-go to friendly aircraft during a potential all-out conflict, such as a high-end ****** in the Pacific against China. As such, ***** refueling pods attached to various aircraft could help provide badly needed additional aerial refueling capacity, overall.

The Air Force has raised the possibility that some of its future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones, which it hopes to buy

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in the coming years, could be

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. This would further increase the demand for aerial refueling capacity. It’s interesting to note here that one AFWERX A2RM graphic, seen below, depicts a notional drone design being refueled in flight via a *****.

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All of this comes as the Air Force is facing the prospect of at best severely truncated budgets in the coming years. A major review of the plans to acquire a new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet as part of

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(NGAD) modernization initiative has shown that even projects previously described as top priorities are not safe from serious cuts. This can only prompt questions about the service’s previously stated plans to acquire more survivable tankers

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, the centerpiece of its broader

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(NGAS) effort.

“There . . . will likely have to be some commitment beyond the Air Force to get the kind of development money and procurement [funding] that it takes to actually make that payment,” now-retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Moore, then Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, said about the service’s future tanker plans at the Aerial Refueling Systems Advisory Group’s annual symposium in April,

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. “But until we know what the options are, we don’t even have an idea what that looks like.”

Whatever the Air Force’s aerial refueling ecosystem might look like going forward, the recent SHARK contracts show continued interest in new buddy stores that can connect to receivers that use the ***** method being a part of it.

Contact the author: *****@*****.tld

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#Aerial #Refueling #***** #Pods #F15s #Works

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