Matrix Games Forums

Hey guys,

I'm trying to learn a bit more about using tankers and automated missions. In the example below, the goal is as follows: the bomber will fly to the target, automatically refuel enroute, (without manually creating a refuel point,) and then the tanker will return to its home base (Keflavik) and the bomber will return to its home base (Ramstein.) This is mostly working: the bomber flies the correct flight path and does automatically refuel enroute without me having to manually set a refueling point. However, there are two problems:

Firstly, despite the bomber being set to look for a tanker when it reaches 60% fuel, and the fuel state (bingo) is 60%, it does not attempt to refuel until it's at about 10%, at which point it doubles back towards the tanker.

Secondly, when the bomber does refuel, it takes on only a small amount of fuel; not enough to complete its mission. The tanker then RTBs (despite being nowhere near Bingo, and being set to RTB bingo 30%,) and the bomber ditches.

To reiterate, my specific goal here is to figure out how to use tankers without manually setting a refueling point for each mission, in order that I can create large strike missions with many aircraft, tankers, and targets without having to manually edit each individual flight plan. I'd much appreciate it if anyone could explain how to fix these issues. The save file is attached.

I've played around a lot with refueling, and it can be maddening.

As you said, for the most part it works fine.

From my experience, when it experiences some difficulty is when what you discussed occurs. Whether you create a flight path or not, a flight path still exists for the planes in question. With this, different speeds are often used. The group speeds up or slows down, often very slightly trying to keep the group together, and when it does, it often throws the fuel situation off. If that happens, even for a brief time, and the group (or a member of the group) dips below the established threshold, then the group abandons its mission and RTB. The percentages are the issue.

The only way that I can be guaranteed to have success is to place a tanker in the flight path, if the distance is going to be close to its maximum distance. Always place the tanker after WayPoint #4. It won't work if it appears before #4. If necessary, you can have it refuel again on the return home. Make sure to place the tanker (or same tanker) in the same area and create a new Waypoint. Make sure that it comes after the original EGRESS Waypoint.

Another issue can be that there aren't enough tanker lines to feed the entire group. They there aren't then it will feed the first comers, and the rest go hungry. If that happens, the whole group will RTB because they don't figure to have enough fuel.

A final tip: The tanker has to be real close to the flight path. If not, the flight will fly right on by. I have had the most success by placing the tanker directly on a Waypoint, as opposed to between two points. Sometimes, if it is between two points, then the tanker may be caught in the process of turning around, and then it may no longer be close enough in the path to provide fuel.

Along that same line, if you desire the tanker to fuel multiple groups, and you have the tanker set to follow the group, then the tanker might not be within the two waypoints when the second group arrives. If that is the case, then it usually won't refuel any of the planes of the second group because it is not within the two waypoints. The best way around this is to spread out the two groups (time-wise) if you can, if you plan on using the same tanker to fill both.

Good luck.

Thanks for the reply, DW. I've dropped the attempt to completely automate tanking; now all I want to do is partially automate it so that I can use tankers without manually micromanaging every unit in - flight. There must surely be a way to do this, but I can't find a method that works.

In this new save, I'm trying to hand - hold the aircraft as much as possible without manually controlling them. The plan is as follows: the tankers are set to arrive on a tiny track at a given time on station. The bombers are set to arrive at a parallel track, slightly behind the tankers, ten minutes after the tankers arrive. To avoid any of the problems DW described with coordination, the flight size is 1 for all missions. At the time the bombers arrive, I manually reassign the bombers to a patrol mission; they should then find the tankers, (which are both right in front of them and between themselves and the target,) refuel, and proceed to the patrol area. RTB bingo is turned off to avoid any complications with that.

The result: all the bombers look for a tanker at their designated reserve fuel, but they all select the SAME tanker, despite there being as many tankers as bombers (I have tried with "pick nearest tanker," "tankers between receiver and target," and "between receiver and target but allow emergency turnaround," and the result is always the same.) Once the one tanker which everybody's chasing runs out and RTBs, the others do not select a new tanker; they say they're "maneuvering to refuel," but never pick a tanker despite the tankers being right in front of them, instead milling around until they ditch. This happens regardless of whether the bombers are reassigned to the patrol mission, as planned, or whether they stay on their original support track right next to the tankers.

I feel like I must be missing something here. Surely there is some way in this game to use tankers without manually controlling everything? If anybody has a way, please let me know. Save attached again.

Refuel in CMO is a mystery to me

However I see that you are using B1676 and an old database.

I would try with the last beta (and the last db), as some of the fixes listed are related to refuel issues.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=413970


The last beta link is this.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=414039


I would also recreate the missions in the last build to be sure. If you still find a problem post it in the tech support with a save.

Nikel wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 12:24 pm Refuel in CMO is a mystery to me

However I see that you are using B1676 and an old database.

I would try with the last beta (and the last db), as some of the fixes listed are related to refuel issues.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=413970


The last beta link is this.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=414039


I would also recreate the missions in the last build to be sure. If you still find a problem post it in the tech support with a save.

Okay, thanks very much!

GeneralVikus wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 11:34 am Thanks for the reply, DW. I've dropped the attempt to completely automate tanking; now all I want to do is partially automate it so that I can use tankers without manually micromanaging every unit in - flight. There must surely be a way to do this, but I can't find a method that works.

In this new save, I'm trying to hand - hold the aircraft as much as possible without manually controlling them. The plan is as follows: the tankers are set to arrive on a tiny track at a given time on station. The bombers are set to arrive at a parallel track, slightly behind the tankers, ten minutes after the tankers arrive. To avoid any of the problems DW described with coordination, the flight size is 1 for all missions. At the time the bombers arrive, I manually reassign the bombers to a patrol mission; they should then find the tankers, (which are both right in front of them and between themselves and the target,) refuel, and proceed to the patrol area. RTB bingo is turned off to avoid any complications with that.

The result: all the bombers look for a tanker at their designated reserve fuel, but they all select the SAME tanker, despite there being as many tankers as bombers (I have tried with "pick nearest tanker," "tankers between receiver and target," and "between receiver and target but allow emergency turnaround," and the result is always the same.) Once the one tanker which everybody's chasing runs out and RTBs, the others do not select a new tanker; they say they're "maneuvering to refuel," but never pick a tanker despite the tankers being right in front of them, instead milling around until they ditch. This happens regardless of whether the bombers are reassigned to the patrol mission, as planned, or whether they stay on their original support track right next to the tankers.

I feel like I must be missing something here. Surely there is some way in this game to use tankers without manually controlling everything? If anybody has a way, please let me know. Save attached again.

You can use the refueling configuration settings to force the aircraft of a mission to only refuel from tankers assigned to a specific (support) mission. The configuration settings window button is next to the refuel/UNREP doctrine setting in the mission settings (not the EMCON/WRA section). The option is intended for the receivers, so set up the configuration for the strike or patrol mission, not the support/tanker mission.

However, to avoid the issue you are having you would probably have to create an individual mission for each aircraft, or at least make an individual mission for smaller sets of planes (so if you have 15 bombers and 15 tankers in the scenario, create three different strike and refueling missions, pairing each with each other, but still using a flight size of 1 aircraft).

Whether CMO or the player, or a combination of both, just tossing a bunch of flights at a bunch of tankers and expecting it to be point and click is wrong. It takes a lot of planning, thought, and practice to make it work. Sometimes it might work, but most times you'll get unexpected results. There are not many people in the real world and probably less than a handful in the gaming world that know it large refueling missions work and can be effectively operated without a lot of people involved.

My frustration-free approach is using flight plans and planning with no more than four aircraft per group and plan. I also have a lot of waiting areas for aircraft to gather and sort themselves out. More than a couple groups and a couple tankers will consistently be too complex for a typical player to plan. Just my approach.

Nikel wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 12:24 pm Refuel in CMO is a mystery to me

However I see that you are using B1676 and an old database.

I would try with the last beta (and the last db), as some of the fixes listed are related to refuel issues.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=413970


The last beta link is this.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=414039


I would also recreate the missions in the last build to be sure. If you still find a problem post it in the tech support with a save.

Thank you very much for the advice - the beta worked, and after a great deal of trial and error I was able to achieve what I wanted: an (almost) fully automated and scalable method of complex tanker operations. For anyone interested, I have posted a step by step guide with an example scenario:

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=414808