Operation Payloaded Record from Aksungur
September 17, 2020
Some HMS Queen Elizabeth Crew COVID Test Positive
September 19, 2020France Retires First Stratotanker
French Air Force and Space Command ( Armée de l'Air de l'Espace / AdlAdlE) retires the first C-135FR Stratotanker (Serial 475/93-CF). AdlAdlE will cease aircraft from operations on 7 October 2020
The AdlAdlE started to use twelve Boeing C-135FRs from 1964 onwards. The dozen aircraft were assigned to the French Strategic Air Forces and mainly in use to support the nuclear-capable Mirage IVA. That nuclear deterrence mission was later fulfilled by the Mirage 2000N and now the Rafale B.
One C-135FR crashed in Polynesia during a deployment on 30 June 1972. The remaining eleven Stratotankers were re- engined with CFM56 engines in the late 1980s. Three former US Air Force KC-135Rs were added to the fleet in 1997.
The A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) “Phenix” will replace Stratotanker. The first of fifteen Phenix' was introduced in the AdlAdlE in September 2018. Three of these modern MRTTs are delivered to Air Refuelling and Strategic Airlift Squadron (l'Escadron de Ravitaillement en Vol et de Transport Stratégiques /ERVTS)
