Royal Air Force Voyager tanker has successfully refuelled Swedish Gripen fighters taking part in NATO’s biggest exercise in decades. The tanker was operating from RAF Lossiemouth in northern Scotland when it rendezvoused with the Swedish jets and United States Marine Corps F-35Bs, over the Arctic Circle. Normally based at RAF Brize Norton, the Voyager flew sorties from Lossiemouth on Exercise Nordic Response, part of Exercise Steadfast Defender. The Royal Air Force and Swedish Air Force have been increasing co-operation in recent months. This latest exercise saw dogfighting fighters refuel over Sweden, in the run-up to the country’s NATO accession. Steadfast Defender is demonstrating NATO’s ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area during a simulated emerging conflict across the maritime, land, air, space and cyber domains.
Voyager is the RAF’s sole air-to-air refuelling (AAR) tanker and also operates as a strategic air transport. The aircraft is in service as the Voyager KC.Mk 2, equipped with two underwing pods for refuelling fast jets, and as the Voyager KC.Mk 3, with an additional centreline hose for use by large aircraft. Fuel offloaded during AAR is taken from the aircraft’s standard wing and fuselage tanks, leaving the cabin free for up to 291 personnel and the hold available for freight. As a tanker, capabilities include the ability to operate a ‘towline’, where the Voyager orbits around a prescribed area awaiting ‘receivers’, or in a ‘trail’, where it flies with a number of fast jets, refuelling them over long ranges while taking responsibility for the formation’s fuel and navigation.
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen is a light single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stability design and fly-by-wire flight controls. A third batch was ordered in June 1997, composed of 50 upgraded single-seat JAS 39Cs and 14 JAS 39D two-seaters, known as ‘Turbo Gripen’, with NATO compatibility for exports. Batch III aircraft, delivered between 2002 and 2008, possess more powerful and updated avionics, in-flight refuelling capability via retractable probes on the aircraft’s starboard side, and an on-board oxygen-generating system (OBOGS) for longer duration missions. In-flight refuelling was tested via a specially equipped prototype (39?4) used in successful trials with a Royal Air Force VC10 in 1998.
Exercise Steadfast Defender 24 is split into two overlapping parts. Each phase of the exercise includes a range of associated exercises hosted by different countries. Part 1 focuses on transatlantic reinforcement – the strategic deployment of North American forces across the Atlantic to continental Europe. This phase includes maritime live exercises and amphibious assault training in the North Atlantic and Arctic seas. Part 2 focuses on multi-domain exercises across Europe – demonstrating NATO, national and multinational military capabilities. This phase will also test the rapid deployment of troops and equipment across borders within the Alliance.
