Fact check: UK tanker aircraft cannot refuel Israeli jets

Social media users have drawn attention to a British military refuelling tanker which was circulating above Qatar at the time that Israel bombed targets in the country on September 9.

Some of the posts claimed that the tanker refuelled Israeli jets during the attack or took part in the attack in some way.

Evaluation

The British refuelling plane had performed very similar flights above Qatar for each of the two days prior to the Israeli attack.

The plane could not have been used to refuel Israeli jets because UK and Israeli systems for air-to-air refuelling are not compatible.

The facts

Data from Flightradar24 shows that the Royal Air Force (RAF) plane was in the air between 11.46 am and 5.05 pm local time on September 9. The flight data shows it flying repeatedly in two different loops just off the coast of Doha.

In a press conference, the Qatari prime minister said that the attack happened at 3.46 pm local time on September 9. That means that the RAF plane had been in the sky for four hours before the attack and landed a little over an hour after the attack.

But the plane also performed similar flights at similar times on each of the two days preceding the attack.

On September 8, the plane took off at 11.57 am and landed at 5.04 pm local time. On September 7, it took off at 12.01 pm and stayed in the air until 5.08 pm local time.

The flight patterns were very similar on September 7 and 8, but slightly different on September 9, the day of the attack.

The flights on September 7 and 8 repeated the same loop, hugging the Qatari coastline, for almost the whole day. The flight on September 9 flew first in one loop a little further offshore, then at around 2.15 pm local time it came closer to shore, mimicking the same loop that the flights had taken on the two prior days.

What refuelling system does the UK use?

The system that the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) uses to refuel jets in mid-air is often called probe-and-drogue, but can be referred to by other names such as hose-and-drogue.

In essence, the tanker plane has what looks like a shuttlecock – called a drogue – at the end of a hose. The tanker trails this hose behind it. The receiving plane – the one that is being refuelled – has a tube which extends forwards from next to the cockpit. This is called a probe. The plane inserts its probe into the drogue, and starts taking fuel from the tanker via the hose.

A 2024 paper from King’s College London said that the “RAF’s tanker fleet is exclusively fitted with the ‘hose and drogue’ refuelling system.”

This is also clear from videos and images of RAF planes refuelling.

What refuelling system does Israel use?

There is another common way of refuelling planes in mid-air – with a so-called flying boom. This is a solid arm which extends out of the tanker and plugs into a receptacle on the receiving plane.

The boom is operated by a crew member on the tanker, and is retracted after refuelling is complete.

An obvious visual clue as to which refuelling method the planes are using is to look at the receiving plane: Probe-and-drogue systems tend to connect next to the cockpit, while flying boom systems normally connect to the top of the plane (sometimes called dorsal refuelling), behind the cockpit.

This is not always the case. So another clue to look out for is that planes refuelling by boom tend to be flying lower than the tanker, while probe-and-drogue refuelling happens at a similar level to the tanker.

Israel has three different attack planes in its arsenal, the F-35A, and variants of the F-16 and F-15.

The Israeli and US air forces have released official imagery of Israeli planes being refuelled in the air.

One video released by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) shows an F-35 refuelling at 12 seconds and 21 seconds in and shows an F-15 refuelling at 27 seconds. Another image from the US Air Force shows an Israeli F-16 refuelling.

The easiest way to tell the  F-15 and F-16 apart is to count the number of vertical stabilisers at the back. The F-15 has two and the F-16 has one.

The video and image clearly show that all three aircraft are fuelled with the flying boom system. In the video, planes are connected via a boom which docks behind the cockpit on the receiving plane. In the image of the F-16 – which is taken from the tanker – the item being extended from the tanker plane is clearly a hard boom rather than a soft hose.

Are the UK and Israeli systems compatible?

As the UK Defence Journal has pointed out in the past, the problem with the theory that British planes are being used to refuel Israeli planes is that the two countries do not have compatible systems. Even if they wanted to, RAF tankers could not refuel Israeli jets.

British tankers fitted with hoses and drogues simply cannot supply fuel to jets designed for a flying boom system. A 2007 paper from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University calls the two methods of aerial refuelling “incompatible”.

This has proven a controversial point in military circles at times. In 2014, the UK was considering whether it should buy F-35A jets – which use flying booms to refuel.

In evidence to Parliament at the time, MPs were told that “the F-35A is configured with Dorsal Refuelling – not with a Refuelling Probe. It is therefore not compatible with the billion-pound Voyager AAR Tanker aircraft which is Drogue-fitted and which can only refuel aircraft fitted with a Refuelling Probe.”

The issue has been raised again in Parliament this year after the Government announced plans to buy F-35A jets. The issue has also been discussed in the trade press.

It is possible for some flying boom systems to be fitted with an adaptor which can allow them to refuel jets with a probe. However, there are no known adaptors which allow tankers with hoses and drogues to refuel planes that normally rely on flying boom systems.

Links

Video on Instagram (archived page and video download)

Post on X (archived)

Second post on X (archived)

Third post on X (archived)

Flightradar24 data on September 9 flight (archived)

Israeli strike on Hamas in Qatar adds fresh volatility to already unstable region (archived)

Clip from of Qatari PM’s press conference (archived post and video)

Flightradar24 data on September 8 flight (archived)

Flightradar24 data on September 7 flight (archived)

KCL – Tanker Trouble: The limitations of the Royal Air Force’s tanker fleet (archived)

Royal Air Force – RAF Voyager refuels F-35B for the first time in the UK (archived)

RAF on Facebook – Voyager Air-to-Air Refuelling (archived post and video)

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – A Comparison of In-flight Refueling Methods for Fighter Aircraft (archived)

Aerial Refueling Boom Pods That Could Go On F-15s In The Works (archived)

IAF on Facebook – No gas stations at a 9,000 meter altitude (archived post and video)

Air Combat Command – image from Red Flag 09.4 (archived)

Air Combat Command – Red Flag 09.4 (archived)

Getty Images – Israeli F-15 (F-15 has two)

Lockheed Martin in Israel (archived)

UK Defence Journal – Despite claims, British tankers cannot refuel Israeli jets (archived)

Further written evidence from Commander N D MacCartan-Ward (archived)

They Work for You – F-35 Aircraft: In-flight Refuelling (archived)

They Work for You – Nuclear-certified Aircraft Procurement (archived)

UK Defence Journal – New British nuclear strike jet can’t be refuelled by RAF (archived)

Alamy – Aircraft maintenance personnel with the 171st Air Refueling Wing (archived)

European Security and Defence – Fuelling the future fight: Inside the USAF’s 100th Air Refuelling Wing (archived)