Three NATO Tankers Operating Over central Mediterreanean Sea

This afternoon, an interesting multi-national refueling operation took place over the Tyrrhenian Sea involving Italian, British, and French tanker aircraft.

An Italian Air Force KC-767A (callsign METAL08, registration MM62227) took off from Pratica di Mare Air Base and has been operating over the Tyrrhenian Sea, west of Naples, in the same area where a Royal Air Force Airbus KC2 Voyager (callsign BENZA10, registration ZZ337) is also flying. The British aircraft departed from Brindisi earlier this morning.

Further west, a French Air Force Airbus A330MRTT (callsign VANT36, registration F-UJCQ) departed from Istres Air Base and has been orbiting southwest of Sardinia, likely providing additional refueling support to aircraft transiting the central Mediterranean.

The presence of three different NATO tankers operating simultaneously in the same region suggests a coordinated multinational training mission or large-scale deployment support, reflecting once again the high level of interoperability between allied air forces in the Mediterranean theatre.