Overview

For more than seventy years, American airpower has reached farther, stayed longer, and moved faster than any force in history-not because of fighters or bombers alone, but because of the tankers that quietly sustain them. From the jet-age breakthrough of the KC-135 Stratotanker to the digitally networked KC-46 Pegasus, this book tells the untold story of the aircraft that make global air operations possible every hour of every day. Blending technical mastery with sweeping strategic history, KC-135 to KC-46: The Tanker Chain That Makes Airpower Possible traces the evolution of aerial refueling from early Cold War nuclear deterrence through Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq, and into today's era of great-power competition. It reveals how tankers shaped the way wars are fought, how alliances operate, and how the United States maintains continuous reach across oceans and continents without permanent forward basing. This is not just the history of machines, but the story of doctrine, logistics, innovation, and endurance. The book follows how tanker crews adapted across generations of conflict, how aging airframes were sustained far beyond original expectations, and how the Pegasus emerged as the next link in a chain that now spans a full century of airpower evolution. Authoritative, deeply researched, and written with narrative clarity, this book stands as the definitive account of the most indispensable-and most overlooked-aircraft in modern warfare.

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9781970852066

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