While the KC-10’s primary mission is aerial refueling ... is based on the civilian DC-10 commercial aircraft and has been in service with the U.S. Air Force since 1981. Twenty KC-10s were ...

The Air Force inventory ... during in-flight air refueling. A special shuttlecock-shaped drogue attached to and trailing behind the flying boom may be used to refuel aircraft fitted with probes.

AFRL first experimented with automated aerial refueling on a Learjet ... future fleet of uncrewed tanker aircraft, the Defense Department said on March 3. The Air Force Research Laboratory ...