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in order to fight "air guerrilla warfare" under the firepower of chinese missiles, the united states. according to the us "war zone" website on september 3, the us air force is developing a small hard refueling pod called "small hybrid aerial refueling kit", referred to as "shark". the united states hopes to make fighters such as f-15 or drones into small refueling aircraft to meet its future "air guerrilla warfare" combat needs, especially to improve survivability when facing chinese firepower in the pacific battlefield.

tactical refueling pod that can be applied to multiple platforms

on august 27, the u.s. air force research laboratory (afrl) awarded legionnaire international a $3,193,251 contract to develop the shark pod. on the 29th, legionnaire international's subsidiary dynetics received a separate contract from the u.s. air force worth $2,677,093.

the two shark contract notices are light on details, both simply saying they must be related to "a small fuel transfer machine that is modular and platform agnostic, with the main system required to be loaded inside the pod's external mold line."

the war zone column speculates that shark looks at least partly related to the "air-to-air refueling mechanism digital design challenge" (a2rm) announced last year by the u.s. air force research laboratory (afrl) innovation incubation project "afwerx". according to afwerx, this design challenge "aims to use the latest technological advances in automated aerial refueling to modernize the fuel transfer system to achieve a smaller and more flexible refueling capability", and the a2rm project "the initial scope of consideration should focus on the f-15".

the a2rm challenge closed accepting submissions in january, and afwerx previously said it expected to present the eliminated proposals sometime in march or april of this year. new technologies involved in the a2rm include innovative boom/container and probe/nozzle technologies, controllability of fuel transfer mechanisms, platform other interfaces, and smart sensors and integration.

f-15 of the us air force is refueling

although the exact relationship between shark and a2rm is unclear, the a2rm project's requirements at the time required the submitter to submit a pod-type refueling pod that was "completely unrelated to the platform" and a system that "can be loaded into existing fuel tanks." the full set of refueling equipment "needs to be loaded within the system's outer mold line (oml)." the entire "device" will be "capable of hard-pipe refueling of active u.s. military aircraft. if possible, this wing-mounted pod would preferably be able to refuel two hard-pipe refueling aircraft at a time. in addition, the a2rm project hopes that this pod will be technically compatible with existing hard-pipe refueling equipment, and hopes that the new pod will "use mature and integrable technologies" and be finalized no later than fiscal year 2026.

a2rm further requires that the entire refueling system be installed in a modified 600-gallon fuel tank with a diameter of 36 inches and a length of 230 inches. this is the size of the external fuel tank commonly used by us air force tactical aircraft. if possible, the us air force hopes that the smaller 330-gallon fuel tank can also be converted into a refueling pod.

since the size of the fuel tank is equivalent to the auxiliary fuel tank commonly used in tactical aircraft, according to the a2rm concept, business jets, twin-engine passenger planes and commercial cargo planes, various tactical fighters - including the stealth f-35 fighter and a-10 attack aircraft - can carry this pod.

this is not the first time that the united states has studied buddy refueling pods. the u.s. air force has studied buddy refueling technology many times in history. however, since the u.s. air force generally uses hard-pipe refueling, it has historically designed this pod around hard-pipe refueling, which has brought certain difficulties. since 2019, the u.s. air force has begun to increase its efforts to explore hard-pipe aerial refueling pods. last year, the u.s. air force disclosed in its proposed fiscal year 2024 budget that it had completed the design of the so-called "small pod-type tactical aerial refueling boom," but did not provide further details.

however, the shark pod does not seem to be the same as traditional hard-hose refueling. . a website for an entity called "tactical fuels" states that future shark pods may not have a boom as traditionally understood, but instead incorporate some innovations. a "student team, possibly brought together through the university of colorado boulder's defense design program," then worked hand in hand with the u.s. air force research laboratory to design a prototype of a small hybrid aerial refueling kit (shark). the prototype design, called "vampire," includes a "controllable end effector" that "will be able to refuel any nato aircraft, including those that traditionally require a boom of more than 30 feet," without the use of a traditional boom. "

collectively, these new systems will enable the air force to conduct tactical refueling missions similar to the u.s. navy’s buddy refueling, enable automated aerial refueling capabilities, and provide flexibility to commanders and joint strike missions.

as for the reason for developing this partner pod that can be used by tactical fleets, the "war zone" column stated that in future battles with china in the pacific, the air force and other friendly aircraft need to act in a distributed manner to avoid the vulnerability brought by china's long-range firepower, which will further amplify the "tyranny of distance." traditional tankers must operate at a great distance, which is contrary to the current operational logic of the us air force. a large number of tankers modified from tactical fleets can provide greater flexibility.