British air-to-air refueling service provider AirTanker has provided, on time, all nine Voyagers (Airbus A330MRTTs) that make up the “core” fleet providing service to the UK Royal Air Force (RAF). They have replaced the RAF’s aging VC10 and TriStar tankers. One of them is now engaged on the type’s first “no-notice” operation—the refueling of RAF Tornados flying strike missions over Iraq.

Although owned by the AirTanker consortium, a commercial company, the Voyagers are maintained on the UK military register and flown by RAF aircrew belonging to Nos. 10 and 101 Squadrons (except for one aircraft that flies in a transport-only role). Wg Cdr Jamie Osborne, officer commanding No. 10 Sqn, said that AirTanker has trained 27 of the 30 planned crews. The aircraft are demonstrating “98-percent reliability,” he reported. They are cleared to refuel Typhoon and Tornado fighters and C-130 Hercules transports, with clearance to refuel the RAF’s E-3D Sentry AWACS and forthcoming A400M Atlas airlifters anticipated by year-end and next year, respectively, he added.

Osborne made passing reference to the teething troubles that delayed the refueling clearances. “The hose [length] is massive compared to the VC10s, and the wing has [significant] dihedral,” he noted. But the RAF’s fast-jet pilots are becoming accustomed to the difference, he added. The RAF has told AirTanker to retain the Sargent-Fletcher drogues in the wing pods, in preference to the newer-design high-speed variable drag drogues (HSVDDs) that Airbus D&S fitted to other A330MRTTs. (The Voyager’s centerline refueling station, which refuels heavier aircraft, is still fitted with the HSVDD.) On a media flight last week, this AIN editor observed the considerable flex in the Voyager’s wing during refueling operations but watched three Typhoons refuel without difficulty. However, one wing hose subsequently failed to retract into its pod, requiring an awkward return to base at RAF Brize Norton. A company spokesman said that this was only the third such occurrence since operations began in May 2012.

Airbus D&S will deliver five more Voyagers to AirTanker by the end of 2016, providing a “surge” capacity to meet additional or occasional military demand. But their future use when not required by the RAF remains uncertain. AirTanker has an agreement “in principle” to lease one of them to Thomas Cook Airlines from May 2015. But an informed observer told AIN that the company might struggle to match commercial A330 lease rates, especially since it must bear the cost of conversion from military to civil configuration.

Last year, AirTanker nursed hopes of providing some or all of the Voyager “surge” fleet to other European air forces, which have explored the pooling of tanker resources through the European Defence Agency (EDA). But none of the 10 nations participating in the EDA-led effort has shown interest in leasing or commercially contracting for tankers. Nine of these nations are still supposedly committed to a joint purchase of new tankers—probably A330MRTTs by the middle of next year, for service by 2020. France has said it will buy its own A330MRTTs but has yet to find the budget.