“It
has been great to work with our Italian Air Force partners to strengthen
our joint warfighting capability,” said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, U.S.
Navy’s Precision Strike Weapons program manager, who oversees
the Navy’s aerial refueling efforts. “With the team’s
continuing good work we will be able to clear all of our operational
strike aircraft for coalition aerial refueling and extend our combat
strike range capability.”
Under Engdahl’s direction, the aerial refueling team developed
a plan to support Italian tanker testing. The team coordinated with
its Italian counterparts, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23,
(VX) 31, and Marine Aircraft Group 14 to coordinate flights at Patuxent
River using the F/A-18, AV-8B and EA-6B.
During each flight, the aircraft completes a pre-requisite wake survey
before doing initial contacts at a given altitude / airspeed condition.
The aircraft maneuvers to various positions behind and abeam the tanker
that correspond to where it would be if actually taking fuel. At each
position, the pilot evaluates the relative difficulty of capturing and
maintaining the desired position.
Following a successful wake survey, the KC-767A’s hose/drogue
is extended and initial contacts with the basket are completed at various
altitudes and airspeeds. Hose reel system response is tested with slow
and fast closure-rate engagements to ensure the system will operate
at all conditions for operational pilots.
“Testing is going very well and we are encouraged by the results
we have seen so far with the F/A-18,” said Erin Kennedy, PMA-201
aerial refueling class desk engineer. “In the weeks ahead, we
will conduct additional flying quality evaluations with the AV-8B and
EA-6B.”
The goal of the certification testing is to authorize KC-767A refueling
of these three aircraft in an operational environment. Testing is scheduled
to be complete in early October. |
