I know Iv’e recently read somewhere, maybe in “Air Forces Monthly” where the US Navy is experimenting with an unmanned fueling tanker. Just googled it and found much regarding subject.
Yup, they’ll be buying four initially at a fixed price, with the potential to buy more in the future. I don’t know how much gas they can carry, but they’re likely to be more efficient than the Super Bugs and will incur less wear and tear on the Super fleet.
Regarding DCS, probe equipped aircraft can refuel from boom tankers, just that it’s difficult. So if one wants to make up for not having the more common iron maiden basket on the KC-135BDA, just go to a regular KC-135 and give it a go.
An S-3 squadron would deploy with between 8 and 12 aircraft depending on maintenance availability. An A-6 squadron seemed to deploy with between 4 and 6 KA-6s. How many are in the air at a given time is a function of the number of aircraft available and the total number of aircraft scheduled for the launch/recovery cycle.
Remember those tankers are only really intended to top off aircraft that just took off, and give returning aircraft just enough to give them a few rotations around the landing pattern. For anything more you call up a KC-130 or the Air Force.
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Thank you. I will remember this when putting together missions.
http://www.gonavy.jp/AirWingsf.html
I don’t know who put this together and it looks like it’s straight outta 1997, but this is my resource on who was where and with what throughout the ages.
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Allons y a laaaa baguette! 
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It depends…
(You all knew I was going to say that) 
…but is basically what @Franze posted.
In a joint air campaign, tanking is covered in the ATO and is almost all USAF tankers at specific orbits around the TAOR. Depending on the situation you might have a tanker hanging around the boat for launching aircraft to top off…more likely a Recovery Tanker waiting around in case somebody waves off or bolters or is just a bit low on fuel.
Obviously, when it is just Uncle Sam’s Boat Club out there–no USAF around–then it is all Navy tankers.
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Beautiful shots of the Mirage! Wow!
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Ford flight preparing for takeoff.
Me and @AeroMechanical, Deadmeat just off screen.
Way point 3, hit the deck and the throttles!
Diving back in for a reattack…
BDA
@Fridge and @near_blind
Great flight last night.
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Messing around on a random aerobatic server. excuse potato quality but I had to lower settings in the busier rooms and this one was FULL!
great laugh though!
I followed that CE2 for ages wondering where he was going. he plonked it down on the stennis and stopped in about 50 feet. like he had been doing it for years
after which I instantly crashed into the tarawa …
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Do you think these pics look bad?
Because they don’t.
I’ve had to lower the graphics settings in DCS, because I fly VR and it is amazing how incredibly good it looks, even on medium-low settings.
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I normally upload files from my phone but I did these from my pc and after zooming in slightly on the Carrier I realised how low the detail actually was. I must say it doesn’t look that bad in the game though so maybe it’s an artifact of the screenshots rather than the sim.
In all honesty I wasnt in dcs for screenshots last night so I wasn’t exactly framing shots properly. But I thought people might want to see the random stuff that was happening to me over and over. Those f18s followed that CE2 for aboit 6 miles at 180kt. I was struggling in the harrier to keep wings level and that slow and they had the noses stuck up at such a savage AOA and stayed in perfect formation. Great pilots
All you gotta do in the Harrier is angle those nozzles down and throttle up a bit and you can cruise around at that speed easy…till the fuel runs out. 
As is tradition on aerobatics servers. The finest crater simulation can bring!
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Not for the 90 miles he flew off shore with no drop tanks on the harrier
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Finally got some time to tryout DCS with the new video card! Its so nice to be able to turn some eye candy on again and still have reasonable frames with few stutters.
3 SA-10’s spamming missiles at me.
Amazing what shadows and alittle AA can do!
Enjoying the HARMs so far.
This is fine…
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Tried to get a 4 ship going with @Wes, @Andrew116, and Parenteau; me and @Wes on fighter sweep, @Andrew116 and Parenteau on DEAD. @Andrew116 took a Alamo before we could get the Flanker, Parenteau tried to go toe to toe by himself and took an Archer. Then they had to leave. Bummer! I ended up taking out two Gauntlets and 9 Flankers with 1 probable, @Wes bagged 3 Flankers and two Gauntlets. We did better this time than last time!
AI ran off the runway, ejected when the jet hit a fence, then got tired of life.
Synchronized takeoff with @Wes on a DEAD/fighter sweep.
@Wes having radar trouble. If he were in an A-6, he could’ve just kicked the radar with his foot.
Last Gauntlet wasn’t trying to engage for some reason. I had lobbed a HARM at him earlier which damaged him, but figure he may have been out of missiles. Gunned him down. Tried to get the Shilka to turn on radar long enough; didn’t work either.
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Been working on a mission. Coming together nicely.
Decided to begin the mission earlier in the day so I could enjoy a sunrise while flying to the tanker.
I just love the atmospherics of the sunlight, clouds.
Hit the first tanker in the mission in order to top-off then proceeded on our way to our assigned patrol area. While en-route, I and my wing-man enjoyed a jaunt through the clouds and giggling at the perception of speed we got flying through them.
Got to our assigned patrol area in the Gulf and moved up and down the UAE coast making sure no bad guys came this way. Took another drink from a second tanker which was positioned on the coast. Then back on patrol.
Finished up the patrol and heading home with my wing-man tucked in close for a break turn over the airfield. It was a great day.
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Why it is a bad plan to get hit by a Refleks round:
Right engine gone, hydraulics gone, half of my gauges dead, errors display list long as my arm - she still got me home, though! Having two engines is handy I guess… (although the Huey is still more fun to fly). Still, I was darn impressed it was possible to fly her home.
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