Photo shows a tanker surrounded by five thirsty Eurofighter Typhoons jets at night

Aerial refueling operations always provide some cool photo opportunities.

The photographs in this post were taken from an Italian Air Force Boeing KC-767A tanker during aerial refueling operations over central and southern Italy on May 4.

They show several Eurofighter Typhoon jets belonging to the 4° Stormo (Wing) based at Grosseto, taking gas from a KC-767 tanker of the 14° Stormo from Pratica di Mare.

The KC-767 is equipped with both the sixth generation flying boom (based on the one of the American KC-10), and three hose and drogue stations to refuel both aircraft equipped with onboard receptacle and those with a refueling probe: the KC-767 uses a futuristic remote boom operator’s station located behind the cockpit where boom operators, operate both the hoses and the flying boom by means of joysticks and live video filmed by cameras mounted on the aircraft’s fuselage.

Image credit: Remo Guidi

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.