http://www.janes.com/article/59242/uk-r ... yager-boom
03 April 2016
The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) is interested in provisioning its Airbus Defence and Space (DS) A330-200 Voyager tanker-transport aircraft with a boom,
if the funding can be sourced, a senior service official told reporters.
Speaking at the FIDAE Airshow in Santiago on 30 March,
Deputy Commander of Operations Air Marshal Greg Bagwell
said the operational case for equipping at least some of the UK's Voyagers with a boom has already been accepted by the service,
but that there is currently no money available for the conversion work that would need to be done to the hose-and-drogue-equipped aircraft.
"If money were no object and I could wave a magic wand,
I would put a boom on a Voyager tomorrow,"
AM Bagwell said, adding;
"The flexibility that it provides is obvious, especially in an interoperable environment, but it all comes down to practical delivery and cost."
Of the 14 Voyagers, seven KC.2 platforms will be provisioned as two-point tankers (underwing pods), and KC.3 platforms as three-point tankers (underwing pods and a centreline fuselage refuelling unit [FRU]).
Unlike the A330-200 MultiRole Tanker Transport (MRTT) variants fielded by other nations, the Voyager does not have a boom for transferring fuel to 'receptacle'-equipped receivers.
This shortfall not only limits the Voyager's ability to refuel a wide array of allied aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon and Boeing F-15 Eagle,
but it also means that the RAF cannot refuel an increasing number of types in its own fleet (JSF
F-35B Lightning II's, C-17s, P-8 Poseidon, etc) .
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