Originaly By: Amir Regev
October 1999
For the first time ever F-16 fighter have refueled from F-15's. By that the IDF/AF became the only AF in the world which is capable of making this kind of refueling. This method of refueling is based on a unique method of the IAF, which enabling it to make another world-wide "Break-through": Refueling of F-16's from Skyhawks and C-130's.
In the last couple of years the IAF has finished a series of test flights, first of a kind in the world, in which F-16 jets have refueled from F-15's using the "masculine" technique, which is unique for the IAF.
The IFR (In Flight Refueling) test flights from F-15 fighters have started couple of years ago at the AF's Flight Test Center (Hebrew acronym: MANAT, Mercaz Nisuhey Tisa). The goal of the tests was lengthen the operational
range of the F-16 fighters, as a part of a trend of the AF to lengthen the operational range of all of its fighters.
Till these days the A-4 Skyhawks were the only fighters that were capable of refueling other fighters. The Skyhawk carried a special fuel tank, empty from fuel, which contains the rolled probe. The same device was installed on the refueling F-15's as well.
Till now, the F-16's have had only a "feminine" IFR system. Under the test flights, two methods of IFR were investigated. The first one, as mentioned above, was to carry a special fuel tank under the F-16's wing. That tank was equipped with a special fuel pipe in a length of a few meters, where the probe from the refueling aircraft was to be connected (in this case from the F-15). The second one was a device which was developed at IAI, and was attached to the right side of the F-16, by the cockpit (resembling the A-4's and F-4's "masculine" system).
After several test flights in which F-16's were refueled from Skyhawks and F-15's, it was seemed like the "special fuel tank" method answered the AF needs better. That's because while refueling with the fixed refueling pipe, the probe from the refueling aircraft is coming dangerously close to the nose and cockpit of the receiving aircraft.