RAF Voyager KC2

[Kiltie]

Spotted this on FlightRadar this evening.



I think that Voyager KC2 is for refuelling.

Seems strange it went from Brize Norton all the way up to very close by Lossiemouth and then home.

An exercise?

[Kiltie]

rkem said:

The Voyagers are based at Brize so will naturally take-off and land there. The customers are based all over the country, including Scotland.

The airspace above the UK is pretty busy, with airways criss-crossing the land-mass at varying heights. Out to sea is relatively clear and is where the air-to-air refuelling areas are located. This allows the Vger to fly its racetrack patterns without having to worry about conflicting with civilian traffic and ditto for their customers. Vgers have a lot of fuel and can travel long distances to refuel other aircraft, especially Fast-Jets who do not have a lot of spare fuel. So it would make sense for a Vger to fly to Scotland to refuel scottish based aircraft.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for that.

I guess what I was really wondering was; if they were refuelling fast jets, would it not have been easier for those jets to land at Lossiemouth as opposed to flying a tanker from Brize Norton?

[Kiltie]

tuffer said:

Kiltie said:

Thanks for that.

I guess what I was really wondering was; if they were refuelling fast jets, would it not have been easier for those jets to land at Lossiemouth as opposed to flying a tanker from Brize Norton?

Kind of defeats the object if the jest have to land and refuel all the time. The point is that having an air to air refueling capability means the jets can have a longer loiter time in the target area. The Tankers are based at Brize and as has been stated, fly to suitable points to service their customers.

I agree for other (remote) locations but in this particular case, the tanker was doing its circuits spitting distance from Lossiemouth - see below.



I just reckoned nipping in past Lossie would be easier / cheaper than flying a tanker all the way from BN.

[Kiltie]

el stovey said:

As you can see, the UK airspace is quite congested with pre assigned blocks in the sky for all kinds of purposes, although not all are constantly in use.

I've highlighted the area this aircraft was using, there quite a few other air to air refuelling areas around the country though.

Superb - thanks for that.