An Agile Fuel Tank Loader for F-22 Agile Combat Employment

The United States Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept proposes deploying advanced combat aircraft, such as the F-22, from resource-limited forward operating bases (FOBs) far from their home bases. For long-range missions, F-22s may use external fuel tanks to increase range, but these reduce combat effectiveness and must be removed and reattached at FOBs prior to engaging in combat missions. Current processes for unloading and loading these external fuel tanks and their accompanying external wing mount pylon require heavy-duty handling equipment. In this work, a deliberate design process that emphasizes innovation was executed to seek a streamlined system for loading and unloading the external tanks. As a result, a highly portable system was developed, prototyped, and tested that can load and unload the F-22 external fuel tank and pylon for a fraction of the weight and volume (30x reduction in volume) of the existing equipment, and can be transported internally on the F-22, or hand-carried by accompanying maintenance personnel.