Italians Bring New 767 Tanker to Mildenhall

The Italian Air Force visited the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, Britain, with one of its newly acquired Boeing KC-767 tankers. “We are trying to start an exchange program with the US Air Force, so they invited us here so we could show them our aircraft,” said Italian Lt. Col. Mauro Del Giudice, 14th Wing operations chief and command pilot. The Italians are still training to refuel using the 767’s boom. So far, they have been employing only the aircraft’s drogue refueling system and are only cleared to refuel Italian aircraft. “For us, it’s an opportunity to work with the best in the world, so we can learn from them,” explained Del Giudice. During the visit, which began on Dec. 9, Del Giudice and an Italian boom operator flew on two KC-135 missions to observe refueling operations up close. USAF’s in-development KC-46A tanker also is based on the 767 airframe. (Mildenhall report by Karen Abeyasekere)