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Re:Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time by chrisseaton on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @12:50PM (#27450161)
Imagine a wavefront of these refuelling each other and enabling a single crewed aircraft conducting an Operation BLACK BUCK style strike at reach.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck#/media/Fi...

Re:Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time by walrus01 on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @01:03PM (#27450349)
It's my understanding that for B2 missions the SOP is to fly from their base in the midwest US, get refueled several times on the way, perhaps drop some precision guided bombs on something on the other side of the planet, and fly home. There's a crew rest bunk where one of the two pilots can sleep on the way, in rotating shifts.
Re:Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time by wahern on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @01:18PM (#27450532)
"Here’s how B-2 bomber pilots pull off grueling 33-hour flights": https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/04/29/heres-how-b-2-bom...

Reading the article it seems the pilot's personal 33-hour record was actually in a B-52. Here's an article that says the longest combat mission for a B-2 was over 44 hours: https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-stealth-bo...

Re:Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time by remarkEon on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @04:09PM (#27452492)
If you're interested, or are like me and just love visualizations of massive military ops, check out this from The Operations Room. Gets at the scale of Operation Black Buck and the massive complexity and coordination of getting those aircraft to their destination (and back).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5yAtuYPHK4

Re:Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time by DougN7 on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @07:46PM (#27454918)
Wow! Thanks for sharing
Re:Midair plane refuels done by a drone for the first time by remarkEon on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @07:51PM (#27454956)
That whole channel is amazing. Check out the Desert Storm series if you need to burn an hour or two on the weekend refreshing yourself on the history of modern warfare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRgfBXn6Mg