Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works unveils a new optionally-manned stealthy tanker concept
November 7, 2024
The growing area of China’s Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD) envelope and its expanding and evolving air defence capabilities have effectively closed off massive volumes of airspace to the air power enablers (tankers, airborne battle management aircraft and AEW platforms) upon which the USAF relies. This in turn threatens to push US tactical aircraft ‘back’ so far that they will be unable to reach their targets.
In a keynote address at the Airlift/Tanker Association conference, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said that: “Essentially the threat, China again, has reached out with new counter-air systems that could threaten our aircraft, especially tankers, at longer ranges, beyond the ranges which we normally would refuel fighter planes. This put our whole tanker acquisition strategy in question. It is still in question, but we are working to resolve the uncertainty as quickly as possible.”
The US Air Force is currently refining its requirements for a future Next Generation Air-Refueling System (NGAS) ‘system of systems’ – in part to solve this very problem.
The NGAS system of systems is intended to resolve the problem of tanker vulnerability, in which the short combat radius of current USAF tactical aircraft puts their tanker support dangerously close to, or even inside China’s anti-access/area denial bubble. Stealthy tankers could operate closer to the edges of contested airspace than today’s conventional tankers, perhaps allowing existing tactical aircraft to ‘reach’ further forward. They could also help to relieve some of the demands for very long range performance for the new sixth-generation manned fighter and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) being developed under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative, reducing the size and cost of those aircraft.
The NGAS system of systems is likely to be a refuelling ecosystem that includes a mix of traditional, existing non-stealthy tankers – albeit that these will require significant self-defence upgrades with less conventional types. These would perhaps operate under a hub-and-spoke arrangement, with the conventional tankers ‘hanging back’ and passing fuel to smaller, stealthier tankers (possibly uncrewed or optionally manned) that would operate ‘further forward’. Boeing has been offering a land-based derivative of the US Navy MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone as a possible option for NGAS. Tactical aircraft carrying podded ‘buddy store’ aerial refuelling systems could also contribute.
The concept shown by the Skunk Works advanced projects division was relatively small, suggesting a low volume of fuel available for offload, but featured three refuelling booms – one centreline, and two in wing-mounted pods.
No cockpit was visible in released renderings, but the design is understood to be optionally piloted rather than unmanned. Though the aircraft incorporated stealthy (low-observable) features, the wing pods would inevitably increase the aircraft’s radar cross section.
