Could RAF Voyagers refuel Israeli fighter jets? Probe, drogue and boom explained

Palestine Action said after the protest that Britain "continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US/Israeli fighter jets".

#What did Palestine Action claim?

Palestine Action also claims that Voyagers had refuelled Israeli, British and American jets, and had been seen flying missions over Jordan, Iraq and Syria (Dazed; Real Media). The original source of these claims is not known.

#How the two refuelling systems work

Aerial refuelling passes fuel from a tanker aircraft to a receiving aircraft in flight. There are two main systems, and they are not interchangeable.

Probe-and-drogue trails a hose from the tanker, with a basket-shaped drogue at the end. The receiving aircraft has a rigid probe, and its pilot flies the probe into the drogue to connect.

A flying boom is a rigid tube guided by an operator on the tanker. The operator flies the boom into a receptacle on the receiving aircraft. An aircraft fitted for one system cannot take fuel from the other without matching equipment.

#Why Voyagers could not refuel Israel's fighter jets

As far as research shows, RAF Voyagers have only the probe-and-drogue system. Israel's main fighter jets, the F-15, F-16 and F-35I, can only be refuelled by boom. On that basis, RAF Voyagers could not have refuelled those jets.

A King's College London report makes a related point about the RAF's capability: "as the RAF continues to modernise its capabilities and procure new aircraft types, more platforms require the flying boom method to refuel, meaning the Voyager is increasingly limited in what it can support." The report also notes that the RAF depends on the US Air Force, which has a wider fleet of refuelling tankers.

Fitting booms is not simply a matter of the RAF deciding to do it. One commentator on a military aviation forum observed: "The basic problem is that the RAF/MoD/HMG do not 'own' any of the Voyagers. Airtanker do. Therefore the RAF cannot just decide to fit booms to some of the Voyagers, because they aren't the RAF's property." The boom problem and US dependence article looks at this in more detail.

#What can Voyagers refuel?

The Voyager is a converted Airbus A330 airliner that can refuel other aircraft in mid-air (Boston Globe/AP). It can refuel aircraft that use probes, including US Navy and Marine jets.

The MoD confirmed that RAF Typhoons were refuelled in flight by Voyager tankers during the strike on a Houthi drone factory in Yemen on 29 April 2025 (GOV.UK). That is a confirmed case of Voyagers refuelling British jets. It is not evidence of refuelling Israeli jets.

#The better-documented links to Israel's campaign

Three links are better documented, and none of them involves refuelling.

• The Akrotiri connection. Flight tracking records 421 Voyager flights between Brize Norton and Akrotiri, and 524 local Voyager sorties from Akrotiri, between 7 October 2023 and the protest. See the chain of support.
• Israeli planes at Brize Norton. The government admitted nine visits by Israeli Air Force (IAF) planes in February 2024. At least nine more were recorded between September 2024 and June 2025, including Re'em refuelling aircraft. These are Boeing 707s, not Voyagers. See the IAF planes article.
• Surveillance flights. RAF Shadow R1 aircraft flew at least 518 flights over or near Gaza between 3 December 2023 and 27 March 2025, according to Declassified UK and Action on Armed Violence (AOAV). See the surveillance flights article.

None of these shows that Voyagers refuelled Israeli jets.