"It was fitting that we could support the U.S. Unlike the Air Force, the Navy has long utilized other contractor-operated tankers to help provide this kind of aerial refueling support. military and America's allies and partners in the course of training and other non-combat missions like helping aircraft make peacetime transits from one location to another. Metrea is currently on contract with the Navy's Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), but it says that deal makes its KC-135R aircraft available to other branches of the U.S. The video below shows a US Air Force KC-135R refueling Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornet fighters using wing-mounted probe-and-drogue pods. Metrea's KC-135Rs "are equipped with two wing-mounted Multi-Point Refueling System (MPRS) pods which facilitate refueling with probe equipped Navy, Marine Corps and partner nation aircraft," the company's press release notes. That Air Force scheme had some general similarities to the shading of orca whales, leading to it being nicknamed the "shamu".Ī US Navy P-8A Poseidon being refueled by a Metrea KC-135R. Now they wear one of at least two multi-tone schemes that are broadly reminiscent of one the Air Force used on its tankers for a time in the 1980s and 1990s. When those aircraft were purchased they were painted overall gray, as seen earlier in this story. ![]() Previously known as Meta Aerospace, Metrea acquired four retired ex-Republic of Singapore Air Force KC-135Rs back in 2020. ![]() Navy and Marine Corps, as well as many U.S. Probe-and-drogue is the aerial refueling method for the U.S. The other is Omega Air Refueling, which still primarily operates tankers with probe-and-drogue refueling systems. ![]() Metrea is one of just two private companies that even own tankers of any kind configured with booms, the method by which the majority of Air Force aircraft are refueled in flight. The specific mention of boom contacts is important.
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