A battle-damaged Alaskan ANG KC-135R departed RAF Mildenhall on its way home from Operation Epic Fury, demonstrating the extensive temporary repairs carried out to make the aircraft airworthy for the return flight.
On May 30, 2026, KC-135R 63-8028, assigned to the Alaska Air National Guard’s 168th Wing, departed RAF Mildenhall, England as RCH133 (“REACH 133”) bound for Bangor Maine.
The tanker arrived at RAF Mildenhall from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport on 23 May 2026.
Images taken by photographer Bob Archer while the Stratotanker was taxiing for takeoff show the amount of temporary repairs performed on the aircraft to enable it to fly home.
KC-135R 63-8028 AK ANG departs RAF Mildenhall for Bangor Maine May 30, 2026. (Image credit: Bob Archer) KC-135R 63-8028 is the second battle-damaged Stratotanker photographed transiting past RAF Mildenhall. The first aircraft, 59-1444, landed at RAF Mildenhall, England on 12 April 2026 and scouts on the fence line immediately noticed Battle Damage Repair (BDR) evident on the fuselage and some engine cowlings. The aircraft was previously attempting its maiden flight from Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), Saudi Arabia, to Mildenhall when it diverted to Chania International Airport near Souda Bay.
59-1444 is most likely one of at least five Stratotankers damaged in several Iranian attacks on PSAB, although it is unclear where 63-8028 was hit during March 2026. According to FlightRadar24, the tanker was deployed from Eielson AFB, Alaska, to Tel Aviv via Stuttgart on March 7, 2026. Flight tracking records show the tanker flew its first operational mission just hours after being deployed to Israel.
Over the next few days, it flew almost daily sorties until March 26, 2026, which appears to be its final tracking mission. The next follow-up flight was a ferry flight from Tel Aviv to RAF Mildenhall on 23 May 2026. It is unknown what happened during the two months the aircraft apparently did not fly. We also cannot completely rule out the possibility that a change or error in the hexadecimal code occurred before March 26, causing the aircraft to appear in Israel when it was actually in Saudi Arabia. Considering that another attack on PSAB on March 27 damaged American aircraft there, it is also possible that aircraft were deployed there that day for some reason that FR24.com did not track.
In any case, the location and density of combat damage repairs in 63-8028 and 59-1444 are quite different. 59-1444, on the other hand, showed large and small patches throughout the fuselage (including top), wings, engines, and tail. All of 63-8028’s BDR appears to be in the lower rear part of the tanker, as if debris had come from under and behind the aircraft. This also explains why the boom had to be removed from the KC-135R, which was not needed on 59-1444.
A closer look at the tail of a US Air Force KC-135 63-8028 that sustained shrapnel damage from an Iranian drone/ballistic missile on the ground in Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/RIT5HBPnef
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 30, 2026
After leaving Mildenhall, the jet stopped in Bangor, Maine. Like 59-1444 last month, 63-8028’s final destination is Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, home to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, which oversees depot-level maintenance of the KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-46 Pegasus, E-3 Sentry, E-6 Mercury, B-52 Stratofortress and B-1B Lancer.
As for 59-1444, the future of 63-8028 is still unclear. The aircraft may undergo a process of inspection, repair and overhaul before being returned to full operational condition, and as has happened with other KC-135R airframes such as 58-0011, the Stratotanker may be cannibalized for spare parts to sustain the surviving fleet rather than restored.
We will see.
Certainly, despite its impressive size (more than 350 KC-135s and just over 100 KC-46s), the U.S. Air Force tanker fleet was hit hard during Operation Epic Fury by the deadly incidents over Iraq and the Iranian attack on Prince Sultan. The Iranian air war demonstrated once again that high-speed operations involving hundreds of tanker sorties are needed to support both direct combat and logistics missions. Increased use of contracted aerial refueling services could alleviate some of this burden, particularly for training sorties, but demand for aerial refueling tankers continues to be high.
