Navy Considering Commercial Tanker Lease.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Leasing of refurbished military aircrafts for use in refueling of naval jets - Brief Article

Company contends it can refuel naval jets at half the cost of military tankers

An Irish entrepreneur is trying to convince the U.S. Navy that it should lease refurbished Boeing 707s as refueling tankers for naval jets.

Omega Air, based in Dublin, Ireland, recently completed a series of tests at Patuxent Naval Air Station, Md., where a commercial tanker refueled an F/A-18C jet. The company wants to prove that commercial tankers can do the job and can save the Navy money, said Ulick McEvaddy, director of Omega Air. McEvaddy conceived the idea of buying used 707s, DC-9s and DC10s from airlines and transforming them into tankers.

McEvaddy believes the demand for U.S. military aerial refueling will grow, as the pace of American deployments abroad increases and the availability of pilots declines, he told National Defense in an interview.

According to McEvaddy, most military tankers fly less than 300 hours a year. This is less than one month's flying for a civilian aircraft. And he predicts that the military services will become increasingly reluctant to buy more tankers because of the large investment involved in aircraft, flight crews and maintenance personnel.

Omega offers a modified 707 aerial refueling tanker as a "turnkey" solution, with the company providing all fight and maintenance crews, the aircraft and the logistics support, he said. The lease periods could range from one week to 10 years. The tankers could be leased for routine training missions, scheduled deployments, exercises and contingencies.

The company has liability insurance that covers all peacetime operations. In wartime, said McEvaddy, "the jury is still our. ... Normally, you wouldn't bring a tanker into harm's way. Refueling [typically] rakes place behind the front lines.

"We are targeting the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps to fill the dearth they have in tanker capability," he said. "They are losing people to the airlines. The requirement is going up all the time."

Omega's tankers are equipped with hose/drogue systems, which makes them suitable for aerial refueling of Navy jets. The tanker releases a hose with a drogue (a funnel-shaped device) attached to it. The pilot seeking to receive fuel releases a probe and has to "fly into the drogue."

The 707 tanker has a dual hose/drogue centerline system, which allows it to refuel two airplanes simultaneously.

This refueling system would not work with most Air Force fighters and bombers, which require a tanker with a boom, a...