09.00 Chairman’s Recap

Air Commodore Peter Gray (ret’d)
Senior Research Fellow in Air Power Studies
Birmingham University

09.10 US Navy Leasing Of Commercial AAR Interm Service (CAARIS)

• Providing a leasing structure
• Establishing a cost effective option
• Potential expansion to other services
• Adaptation of service for other nations
• Developing a training programme

11.00 Developing An AAR Capability From Current Air Transport Assets

• Background to the tanker project: Why Sweden desires AAR capability
• Air-to-air refuelling with Gripen and C-130 Hercules aircraft
• The challenges of adding extra fuel tanks
• The next steps for the tanker project

Jan Larsson
Tanker Project
Swedish Air Force

11.40 US Marine Corps AAR Operations

• Aerial refuelling service to fixed and rotary wing aircraft
• KC-130
• Recent operational feedback

Lieutenant Colonel David Morris
Commander, Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252
US Marine Corps

14.00 Aerial Refuelling Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

• UAV – UAV refuelling
• Refuelling of UAVs using the probe-and-drogue method
• Developing an actively stabilized drogue
• The challenge of removing the “ìman-in-the-loop”î

John Valasek
Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director, Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory Aerospace Engineering Department
Texas A&M University

14.40 Configurable Air Transport

• AT/AAR merger: Through need or design?
• MRTT the next step for all cargo aircraft
• Meeting operational requirements through a combined AT/AAR fleet

Mike Snead
Independent Aerospace Consultant

Interactive Panel Session

15.50 The Future Of Air To Air Refuelling

• Keeping the current fleet flying
• Maintaining the existing operational tempo
• Preparing for future technology

16.30 Assessing The Cost-Effectiveness Of Modernizing The KC-10 To Meet Global Air Traffic Management Mandates

• Without modernisation, the U.S. Air Force’s KC-10 air refuelling fleet will not be in compliance with upcoming air traffic mandates regulating the minimum capabilities of aircraft flying in certain regions and altitudes
• A loss of access to optimal airspace and routings would increase costs and degrade the KC-10’s wartime effectiveness by precluding the aircraft from flying the most fuel-efficient altitudes and routings in civil air traffic systems
• A detailed analysis of the cost-effectiveness of KC-10 modernisation showed that, overall, the upgrades would result in net cost avoidance
• The findings show that even under a worst-case cost scenario, the savings resulting from KC-10 fleet modernization would exceed the cost of the upgrade long before the fleet is retired in 2045

17.10 Chairman’s Close