October 18, 1999 (by Lieven Dewitte) -
Israel's airforce said on Tuesday it had succeeded in using F-15 fighter jets to refuel F-16 warplanes.
"The air force has recently completed a series of tests which are the first ever and involve using F-15 planes to refuel F-16 planes,'' the Israeli Airforce magazine said in its latest issue. "The airforce has become the first in the world capable of performing this kind of refueling operation,'' it said, adding that this would increase the range of the F-16s.
Israel told Lockheed Martin in July that it would buy 50 of Lockheed's single-engine F-16s. Israel already has 260 F-16s, which makes it the second largest F-16 fleet after that of the United States.
