Lyons witnesses KC-135 hot-pit refueling – “significant innovation for warfighting readiness”

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (April XX, 2021) – On March 22, U.S. Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, commander, U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), stood on the flight line at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, with U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Isaiah Oppelaar, commander, 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron (EARS), to witness his first KC-135 hot-pit refueling.

The hot-pit refueling allows a ground crew to add fuel to the aircraft while the engines and aviation systems remain running, reducing the refueling process from four to six hours to roughly an hour, and keeping aircraft ready to respond to any mission.

As the tanker parked in spot 20A, deployed U.S. Air Force airmen assigned to the 379th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 340th EARS and 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron quickly readied and refueled the aircraft.

“This is the most significant innovation for warfighting effectiveness since I’ve been the USTRANSCOM commander,” said Lyons after watching the 30-minute procedure. “This is a great example of how Airmen-driven innovation can bring significant warfighting capability to any theater.”

While this was the first time Lyons saw the time-saving procedure, the wing began hot-pit refueling in September 2020, and has completed validation and verification of its processes.

“Air refueling aircraft are critical to rapid global mobility and the lifeblood of the joint force’s ability to deploy and employ the immediate and surge forces,” said Lyons noted in his written posture statement provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee. “TRANSCOM operated from all seven continents, delivering over 95 million gallons of fuel during air-to-air refueling operations resupplying nearly 60 thousand aircraft and directly supporting 38 Bomber Task Force missions,”

This capability, which is estimated to cut aircraft turn-times by 75 percent, enabling a quick return to the mission for KC-135 squadrons.

“Hot-pit refueling increases the locations KC-135 can operate from, limits the amount of time the aircraft is on the ground, and significantly increases the amount of gas KC-135s can provide on any given day – key operational factors during a contingency,” said U.S. Air Force Col James Blech, director of TRANSCOM’s commander’s action group and a KC-135 pilot. “While there’s nothing new about hot-pit refueling, the way in which our deployed commanders are working through the tactics, techniques and procedures will create options for senior leaders we haven’t seen in recent years from the air refueling fleet. I’m extremely impressed with the collaboration between the operations and maintenance teams to make this happen.”

Shortly after the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing began hot-pit refueling -- the first KC-135 unit to do so -- the 100th Air Refueling Wing (ARW), Royal Air Force Mildenhall, United Kingdom, and the 92nd ARW, Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, also started using the method that will create more dilemmas for our adversaries.

USTRANSCOM exists as a warfighting combatant command to project and sustain military power at a time and place of the nation’s choosing. Powered by dedicated men and women, TRANSCOM underwrites the lethality of the Joint Force, advances American interests around the globe, and provides our nation's leaders with strategic flexibility to select from multiple options, while creating multiple dilemmas for our adversaries.

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