Stratotankers provide more than refueling capabilities

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Heather Alden
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, England (AFPN) --  The KC-135 Stratotankers of the 351st Air Refueling Squadron here have recently added aeromedical evacuation and airlift missions to their “been there, done that” list.

Including medevac and airlift missions to the KC-135’s responsibilities helps leaders meet two of the Air Force’s primary missions: global reach and global power, officials said.

“We’re doing a lot of things in the KC-135 right now that it wasn’t built for -- things the designers never imagined it would do,” said Maj. Andre Briere, 351st ARS director of operations.

In addition to having a long range, the KC-135, the aircraft can carry up to 83,000 pounds of cargo, enough for some airlift tasks officials said.

Although the C-21, C-141 Starlifter and C-130 Hercules are still the Air Forces’s primary medevac aircraft, the KC-135 has picked up some in-theater missions since the C-9 Nightingale was phased out of the Air Force inventory in 2003.

It is a lot easier on the patients’ health to fly nonstop in a KC-135 than it was to make the several stops in a C-9, Major Briere said.

“The C-9 ... would have to stop about four times to refuel before it could make it (from Africa to Germany). It takes a tremendous amount of time,” he said. “In the meantime, who knows what’s happening with these patients. They could be getting a lot worse, (with cabin pressure) going up and down (and the constantly) changing altitude.”

The 351st ARS has also picked up a traditional cargo airlift mission normally flown by C-141s.

“On an average day, we’ll have one (airlift) mission going out and probably six or seven (refueling missions),” Major Briere said.

The airlift missions play a dual role moving material as well as offering training opportunities for the medevac teams at Ramstein Air Base, Germany .

“Mildenhall’s been really helping us out, letting us do training to get certified on the aircraft. Half of our squadron has been able to be trained (on the KC-135s),” said Senior Airman Melissa Morales, 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron medevac technician and instructor.

Adding medevac and airlift support to the KC-135’s bag of tricks makes this airframe an asset for commanders, said Gen. Robert H. “Doc” Foglesong, USAFE commander.

“The way we do these missions is that we establish a requirement, and we then look for the most logical airframes that can get us in and out of where we need to be in contingency operations,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s a C-130, sometimes it’s a C-17, and sometimes it’s a KC-135 because it can carry a lot in the back, and it can go a long distance," General Foglesong said. “It really does (increase our options) when it comes to being more agile and more flexible.” (Courtesy of USAFE News Service)