The old dictum states that amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics. StrategyPage has a logistical item for you:
Another sign that Israel expects to be attacked; air force ground crews are being trained to perform dangerous “hot refueling.” This procedure is used to speed up refueling of combat aircraft that have just landed, so they can take off quickly and get back to the fight. It’s called “hot” because the engine is kept running while the very explosive fuel is pumped in. This must be done very carefully to avoid an explosion. Not a good thing around an aircraft that are also having new weapons loaded as well. Most of the hot refueling training is done on aircraft that have their engines shut off. But you want to do it at least once, with the engine running, per ground crew, so the entire atmosphere of a hot refueling is experienced. This sort of thing is dangerous, and only done if it’s highly likely there is going to be a war.
Yikes.
I don’t know how the IDF does it, but in USAF we would hot pit (hot refueling) all the time; we just didn’t load munitions. We also did Integrated Combat Turns where we pumped fuel and loaded munitions simultaneously, but without the engines running. These were done every month to stay certified. That was in Germany during the cold war. To me, that is a sign of a heightened state of readiness, but doesn’t mean war is imminent. The IDF is in a heightened state of readiness all the time.
Concur. This is no big deal. -FA-18D WSO
The fueling method described is used by all Armed Forces, nothing new in that. Training on these methods at this time is not important. The fact that there is a press release or a news story on this at ths time is important. Someone is sending a message.
I’ve done it a couple of times on civilian aircraft.
Granted they shut down the engine on the side of the single point on the airplane I did, but we once did a helicopter (Sikorsky) while it idled (also a single point), and one emergency fueling of a EuroCopter (over wing. . . I even managed not to spill a drop on that one)
Have to concur with the scoffers. Hot pitting happens all the time in flight test, particularly when airspace time is getting short.
Routinely hot pit refuel in USAF. Students in training do it all the time. Author of the article is ever overstating or uniformed. Maybe he has an agenda, but anyone familiar with fighters would know that there is nothing unusual here.
Given the daily threat level to Israel, I would only be surprised if they weren’t doing this.
Now if the Israelis were to do something like, oh, lets say moving a few subs and surface ships through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and “ports beyond”, that might get my interest.
(ref: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136338)
Jet fuel is a version of Diesel / Kerosene.
Combustable, but not inflamable.
Not as explosive as gasoline.
I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning.
That’s napalm, doofus!
Since when is jet fuel explosive? Last I heard, you could put out a campfire with it.
Officially throwing the bullshit flag on this. I flew the F-4 Phantom for ten years, from 1978 to 1988 when they started to retire the F-4 fleet to the boneyard. We used to hot pit refuel all the time, and it was about as hazardous as my putting gas in my lawnmower.
Someone is looking for controversy here where none exists. Agenda, anyone?