The Royal Air Force tested a tactical fuel system in northern Norway, marking the first time the service refueled a heavy-lift military transport aircraft during harsh, adverse weather conditions inside the Arctic Circle.
The expeditionary refueling of the Atlas A400M occurred during Exercise Arctic Phoenix at Bardufoss Air Station (ENDU), RAF said Monday. The extreme cold weather exercise began earlier this month to train RAF personnel and test a range of service capabilities, including aeromedical evacuations and cold weather survival skills amid extreme arctic conditions with temperatures reaching minus-20 degrees Celsius (minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit) and with limited daylight.
“The ability to maintain flying operations from remote and austere locations is vital to the RAF being ready to survive or evade attack and outmaneuver an adversary, known as Agile Combat Employment,” the service said.
During the expeditionary refueling test, an RAF team built the temporary fuel system for remote aircraft operations—known as Air Landed Aircraft Refuelling System—with a fabric tank that was supported by snow-filled sandbags.
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“They then proved its functionality by firstly defueling and then refueling the Atlas heavy lift transporter,” RAF said.
During the extreme cold weather exercise, a team of RAF aeromedical evacuation specialists also tested equipment on the ground, as well as in air while on board an A400M.
“More than 20 individual pieces of medical equipment, including patient monitoring and testing devices, blood storage containers, and communications systems have been pushed to their limits to understand how the arctic conditions could impact medical operations,” the service said.
