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| USAF Denies It Refueled Israel's Fighters During War With Iran | |
| 2025-07-18 | |
It’s been weeks since Israel concluded its 12-day war against Iran, and still many questions remain in regards to how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were able to achieve what they did. One puzzle that stands out above all the others has to do with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) being able to sustain operations and achieve significant effects over such great distances. The borders of Israel and Iran are separated by nearly 600 miles at their closest points. With just seven nearly antique KC-707 tankers in its inventory, getting F-15s, F-35s, and F-16s from Israel to Iran and back many times over nearly two weeks became a major curiosity. The U.S. military had the unique ability to provide Israel with the tanking capacity it needed, but there has been no acknowledgement or proof that this occurred, regardless of claims by some. Still, speculation continues that the U.S. did support Israel with aerial refueling in secret. Now the Department of Defense is flat-out denying that it provided any such support for the IAF during the conflict. A USAF spokesperson stated the following in response to TWZ’s inquiry into the matter: “The U.S. Air Force routinely conducts training operations alongside allies and partners within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The Israeli Air Force routinely participates in these exercises and operations at various levels; however, U.S. aerial refueling platforms do not conduct inflight refueling operations with the IAF.” The U.S. Air Force also previously made it clear to us that during a 2022 exercise modeled on an Iranian contingency operation with the U.S. and Israel air arms working together that it didn’t provide aerial refueling support for the IAF then, either. | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #5 The USAF did not refuel Israeli fighters. They didn't say anything about refueling their refuelers, tho... |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2025-07-18 08:39 |
| #4 Israel has KC-46s on order but not yet delivered |
| Posted by: TZSenator 2025-07-18 07:15 |
| #3 KC-137, not Kc-133, sorry The Kc-707 (instead of "KC-137) were actual cilvian Boeing 707 modified into "KC-707 bu the Israel Air Force. the KC-130 is an entirely different airframs based on the c-130 Hercules/ |
| Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2025-07-18 01:38 |
| #2 I remember reading somewhere that Israel has a butch of KC-46A tankers of their own, so no need for USA tanker supports. Israel also have KC-130/133 tankers as well as some older KC-707 Tankers plus a few other custom modified into tankers. |
| Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2025-07-18 01:23 |
| #1 Given the requirement to bomb Iran once in a while, one would expect the Israeli Air Force to have enough tanking capacity to get their strikers there and back without external help. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2025-07-18 00:18 |