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First flight of the P-8A Poseidon and all things related to transition

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Training support. Generally just on the west coast. I wanna say they only have one plane, maybe two.

Here on the east coast we do all our FRS tanking off of ARS Rhinos.
 

Beans

*1. Loins... GIRD
pilot
Considering the ass-pain involved in making a "new" aircraft, even when that "new" aircraft is simply an existing one with some extra plumbing (and radios, and SATCOMs, and don't forget to rip out all the ADS-B, because... military), that might be a hard sell to congress and DoN leadership, especially when we have so many other acquisition priorities. What would be easier would be to label some of the new tankers coming down the pike as KC-46Bs and put "Navy" on the side. But that'll never happen because they're nearly $200mil each (just for the airframe) and the AF would freak if we did it.

I don't know how complicated this is, but a "kit" for a C-40... now we're talking.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I wonder... Any thoughts on modifying a 737 to serve as a CVN "organic" tanker? Having Omega follow us around is nice and all, but I see 75K#+? of fuel in this one, and I think mission and recovery tanker 'round the world... without having our tankers pulled at zoomie whim to get skin in the game. We lost half our sorties to get 2 strike eagles up the boulevard early in OEF... I'm sure it wasn't the last time. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/11/the-kabul-ki-dance/302610/

A LOT cheaper to rent than buy, also would have to come up with a new plane (KP-8) with all the associated costs. A non-starter.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
Training support. Generally just on the west coast. I wanna say they only have one plane, maybe two.

Well they are out of SOCAL. Though they've worked both W-72 and W-157 recently, so they're not specifically tied to the West Sieeeede.

They have more than one plane. I've seen two at one time. Their website says they have three, but nothing a contract couldn't fix.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
They will definitely drag you to the East Coast, and in my experience, they tend to be more reliable than USAF or ANG tankers.
 

707guy

"You can't make this shit up..."
I do seem to remember one of their 135s crashing a while ago - coming out of Pt. Mugu maybe?
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
A LOT cheaper to rent than buy, also would have to come up with a new plane (KP-8) with all the associated costs. A non-starter.

Doesn't really seem all that "organic" to me, either. Unless it's coming off the flight deck, I don't think it matters all that much if it has NAVY or USAF or Omega on the side.

If you want really organic give, they'd probably be better off going with that perpetual KS-3 boneyard revival concept.
 

cfam

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
They will definitely drag you to the East Coast, and in my experience, they tend to be more reliable than USAF or ANG tankers.
^+1 For our last drag, they even pre-staged a jet in WA for us. We've also had them meet us in the Vacapes op-area and drag us back west. From a coordination standpoint, they're a heck of a lot easier to work with than some of the ANG/Reserve units (Omega pre-plans the routing/ALTRVs, etc...)
 

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
Interesting. I wasn't aware you guys did that sorta thing. I always imagined a two day trip through bbq and bourbon land for the transit.
 
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