BBC News reports that at least 10 US Air Force refuelling aircraft left RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, with a KC-135 Stratotanker heading for Germany.
What the video covers
Written in our own words. It only describes what the video shows and says.Tankers leave RAF Mildenhall
This BBC News report covers the departure of a group of US Air Force aircraft from RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, in the east of England. The BBC says at least 10 US Air Force refuelling aircraft left the base on Monday. According to the report, a website used by aviation enthusiasts tracked 10 US aircraft as they moved from Mildenhall to Germany, Spain and Scotland, and the report shows aircraft at Prestwick Airport in Scotland. In the description of the video, the BBC adds that more than a dozen US Air Force aircraft have left the base and that the latest to leave, a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, flew from Mildenhall on Tuesday afternoon and headed towards Germany. The BBC describes these departures as following an earlier move of US aircraft, B-1 bombers, from another British base, RAF Fairford, a month before.
What the governments and the US Air Force say
The report notes that the US government has not confirmed why the aircraft left Mildenhall and that the UK government has not commented on the details either. A UK minister tells the BBC that ongoing operational matters cannot be discussed and that the security and safety of the bases is taken very seriously. The BBC quotes a US Air Force statement saying that its aircraft rotate between installations and operating locations for a variety of reasons, including training and real world requirements, and that it would not provide further information on the movement of assets for reasons of operational security. The rest of the report deals with the wider political background, which falls outside the scope of this page.
Tanker operations and repositioning
Air refuelling tankers such as the KC-135 Stratotanker transfer fuel to other aircraft in flight. That lets fighters, bombers and transport aircraft fly further or stay airborne longer without landing to refuel. The KC-135 is a four engine jet based on the same early Boeing design family as the 707 and refuels receivers through a boom operated from the rear of the aircraft. RAF Mildenhall hosts a US Air Force air refuelling wing that flies KC-135s in Europe. Moving tankers between bases, as the US Air Force statement describes, is a routine part of how air forces position their aircraft for training, exercises and operations, and the destinations named in the report are all airfields that can handle large military aircraft. The report itself does not give the number of aircraft per destination or say how long the tankers will stay away from Mildenhall.
