A 47 Squadron crew, overseen by a Qualified Flying Instructor from 24 Squadron, recently flew their C-130J Hercules from the home of the RAF Air Mobility Force at RAF Brize Norton to Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton to run an Air Landed Arming and Refuelling Point or ALARP site. An Air Landed Arming and Refuelling Point allows a number of helicopters, fast jets or other aircraft to take on fuel where it usually wouldn’t be available to them. This includes improvised runways and in this case the taxiway at Royal Navy Air Station Yeovilton. The Air Landed Arming and Refuelling Point site is set up and run entirely by the aircrew and ground engineers of the Hercules.
Air Landed Arming and Refuelling Point will be replaced by the Air Landed Aircraft Refuelling System or ALARS which is currently employed by the Atlas C.1 (A400M) military transport aircraft, which employs the support of Royal Air Force refuelling specialists from Tactical Supply Wing. In this case the receivers included a pair of Merlins flown by the Commando Helicopter Force, alongside a single AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat helicopter operated by the British Army Air Corps. Despite the torrential downpours that hit the aircraft during the refuel, the whole process was executed flawlessly.