Compatibility Issues
F-105 refueling by probe-drogue.The probe-and-drogue system is not compatible with flying boom equipment, creating a problem for military planners where mixed forces are involved. Incompatibility can also complicate the procurement of new systems — the Canadian Forces currently wish to purchase the F-35A, which can only refuel via the flying boom, but Canada only possess probe-and-drogue refuelers. The potential cost of converting Canadian F-35As to probe-and-drogue refueling (as will be used on U.S. Navy F-35Cs) has added to the political controversy which already surrounds F-35 procurement in Canada.
These concerns can be addressed by drogue adapters (see section "Boom drogue adapter units" above) that allow drogue aircraft to refuel from boom-equipped aircraft, and by refuelers which are equipped with both drogue and boom units and can thus refuel both types in the same flight, such as the KC-10, MPRS KC-135, or Airbus A330 MRTT.
Read more about this topic: Aerial Refueling
Famous quotes containing the word issues:
“The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gasmask handy, it is our business to puncture gasbags and discover the seeds of truth.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)