Tankers: Jack of all trades

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tara Fadenrecht
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  The KC-135 Stratotanker supports a wide-range of missions across the globe. Aside from supporting the war on terror in deployed locations, the KC-135 also supports missions here in the United States. One of these missions includes helping keep illegal drugs from entering the country.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense website, the U.S. military, interagency and partner-nation aircraft work together to support detection and monitoring missions.

Aircrew assigned to the 22nd Air Refueling Wing play a part in these missions by flying directly out of McConnell.

“It’s a home-station support mission tasked by the Tanker Airlift Control Center,” said Lt. Col. Joey Markusfeld, 22nd ARW director of staff and KC-135 pilot. “As far as the tankers are concerned, it’s like anything else we do every day.”

The missions Markusfeld has flown for this cause involved refueling B-52 Stratofortresses over the Gulf of Mexico, he said.

The B-52’s advanced radar system allows the aircraft to accomplish continuous stabilized surveillance. In two hours, two B-52s can monitor 140,000 square miles of ocean surface, but it takes tanker support to keep them in the air for an extended period of time.

“Tanker support is universal,” said Markusfeld. “The point of a tanker is a two-fold mission; get people where they are going and keep them there as long as possible. [The goal is to] keep them in the target area for as long as possible. As long as there is a tanker out there then [the B-52s] can maintain loiter over an area for a longer period of time.”

B-52s, along with other military aircraft, fly persistent missions to monitor areas with a history of illicit trafficking. The U.S. aircraft offer unique surveillance capabilities that complement the counter-illicit trafficking efforts of U.S. and partner-nation law enforcement agencies, according to a DOD article.

Using information gathered by Joint Interagency Task Force South-coordinated operations, U.S. law enforcement agencies and partner nations take the lead in interdicting drug runners. Any U.S. military interdiction involvement is in support of those law enforcement agencies.

“We’re fortunate to work with partners that understand what shared responsibility is all about; partners who are eager and willing to contribute to regional and international security,” said U.S. Navy Admiral Kurt Tidd, U.S. Southcom commander.

With each agency doing their part, Markusfeld recognizes the important role the KC-135 plays.

“To this aspect of the mission set, [the tanker] is the critical linchpin,” said Markusfeld. “Without us, the B-52s could not sustain the mission to a point where they would be effective. So, their effectiveness and subsequent success of the mission is entirely reliant on tanker support.”