The surviving KC-135R Stratotanker from the incident over Iraq in March which saw another Stratotanker lost with six fatalities has been repaired with a replacement vertical stabilizer taken from another aircraft.
Captured at RAF Mildenhall, UK during its transit back towards the United States from forward deployment in Israel, the aircraft was visibly displaying two different serial numbers. On the fuselage itself was the ‘correct’ 63-8017, while the tail is from the aircraft 63-8002, which was last noted with the fleet depot at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
She Lives!!!!
63-8017 arrived at RAF Mildenhall this afternoon as REACH 564 from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport.
This airframe was involved in a mid-air collision back in March with ZEUS 95, which was sadly lost along with the crew. 63-8017 limped back to Tel Aviv with the top… pic.twitter.com/j29GXo8uN0
— Havoc Aviation (@havoc_aviation) August 2, 2026
The aircraft’s own vertical stabilizer was heavily damaged in March when it apparently struck another KC-135 during an Operation Epic Fury sortie over Iraq.
It was subsequently pictured with this damage when back on the ground at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, which has become a hub of U.S. Air Force aerial refueling capability during the conflict.
The damaged tail of 63-8017 that manged to land in TLV with squawk 7700. https://t.co/aTaclAFFjc
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 13, 2026
It arrived at Mildenhall in the late afternoon on Aug. 2, 2026, as REACH 564.
Further work will likely be undertaken on the aircraft once it arrives back in the United States, not least including a repaint with the correct markings (should the donor tail be kept permanently).
Despite entering service almost 70 years ago, the KC-135 remains the most numerous refueling aircraft in U.S. service and it managed to outlive the much newer KC-10 Extender. Current plans will see the Stratotanker live on until at least 2050, so preserving the long out of production airframes is an important and continually ongoing effort.
Operation Epic Fury has placed an immense strain on the force. Alongside the two airframes involved in the mid-air collision, several KC-135s have been damaged on the ground by Iranian attacks on U.S. bases.
The exact degree of damage to these, and whether any attacks managed to write off any airframes, is not entirely clear, but we have been able to see some of the results as affected tankers have transited back across the Atlantic complete with temporary repair patches scattered across the aircraft.
F-16 Demo Team paying tribute to the fallen KC-135 crew.
ZEUS 95 was the call sign for a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker crew that tragically lost their lives during a mid-air collision in western Iraq on March 12, 2026, supporting Operation Epic Fury. 🙏 https://t.co/5m9sG34IfL pic.twitter.com/wtuLqgWtVM
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) July 23, 2026
America’s refueling fleet is by a significant margin the largest in the world, but with the size and global spread of U.S. operations and the country’s simultaneous commitments in multiple theaters many argue that the current force falls short of being sufficient. The KC-46A Pegasus has had a troubled entry to service, and is still not cleared to refuel all aircraft types, but orders continue while decisions are made on future options.
Many thanks to Havoc Aviation (@havoc_aviation) for sending us his images of the jet arriving at RAF Mildenhall, as well as to our friend Bob Archer for contributing additional information.
