Escorts are not re-fueling in strike missions

[Dannyp19]

Not sure if this has been posted or I am doing something wrong.
In the attached save I have a single tanker mission supporting 2 strike missions with escorts. The flight plans for the strike missions have two refueling points (1 for ingress and 1 egress). Just start the scenario and when at the first refuel point the strikers proceed to refuel while the escorts do not. The strikers continue and the escorts follow them without refueling. The north mission escorts make it with the strikers and were able to refuel on the egress. The southern escorts proceed the same way but right before they are needed, they bail out and go refuel.
Even if I try to manually set the escorts to refuel, they refuse to do so.
Thank you for looking at this.

Operation Sling of David, 2014 Practice.zip

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[DWReese]

I created my own scenario and performed the same task.
I used two strikers and two escorts to conduct an attack.
The target was 140 miles greater than the attack radius, which meant that at some point the planes needed to refuel.
I used the Flight Path Editor and had it pass directly over the tanker.
I created a Waypoint (WP#5) indicating the Refueling should take place.
My group consisting of 2 attackers and 2 escorts approached WP#5, and the two strikers began refueling.
When the strikers were done, the group of 4 headed toward the target without the escorts getting any fuel.
The strikers conducted their attack and began flying home, following their pre-selected path.
Based on the mileage listed, once they were back at 36k feet, both the strikers and escorts had enough fuel to make it home, although the escorts would be within 100 miles.
The group of 4 flew right by the waypoint with the tanker (WP#5) and continued on.
When the escorts were about 100 miles away from their base, they suddenly left the group, reversed course, and headed back 150 miles toward the tanker.
The two strikers landed before the escorts made it to the tanker, which means that they likely could have made it.
When the escorts arrived with the tanker (WP#5, both were completely refueled, and they headed back to their base.
The escorts then landed without incident.

The occurrence seems to be very similar to what you describe.

Why did it happen? My guess is that there is a percentage threshold for escorts, and they only seek fuel once the percentage falls below a certain amount.
Perhaps escorts are handled differently simply because they are escorts. I don't know.

In any case, I confirm what you are saying about escorts and refueling, etc.

[DWReese]

I just conducted a follow-up to this exercise.

The original called for 2 strikers and 2 escorts, or a total of 4 planes.
I was using a KC-46A, which has a Centerline Boom, and a single wing Drogue for each, thus three fuel lines.

Since the original had 4 planes, and all 4 could not refuel at the exact same time, the game only fueled the strikers, and did not refuel the escorts.
This is also what was happening with the OP.

This time I used 1 striker and 1 escort. Since they only required two of the available three lines, the refueling process worked perfectly.
I guess the refueling sequence isn't set up to handle more planes than fuel lines within the same group of planes.

In my next test I will send another striker and another escort, but I will make them a couple of minutes behind the first group to see if the program will handle the first group, and then handle the second. I have every reason to believe that it will work just fine.

[Knightpawn]

I just conducted a follow-up to this exercise.

The original called for 2 strikers and 2 escorts, or a total of 4 planes.
I was using a KC-46A, which has a Centerline Boom, and a single wing Drogue for each, thus three fuel lines.

Since the original had 4 planes, and all 4 could not refuel at the exact same time, the game only fueled the strikers, and did not refuel the escorts.
This is also what was happening with the OP.

This time I used 1 striker and 1 escort. Since they only required two of the available three lines, the refueling process worked perfectly.
I guess the refueling sequence isn't set up to handle more planes than fuel lines within the same group of planes.

In my next test I will send another striker and another escort, but I will make them a couple of minutes behind the first group to see if the program will handle the first group, and then handle the second. I have every reason to believe that it will work just fine.

Presumably the escorts prioritise "escorting" above fuel sufficiency and thus follow the strikers once the latte leave the tankers ?

[blu3s]

Not sure if this has been posted or I am doing something wrong.
In the attached save I have a single tanker mission supporting 2 strike missions with escorts. The flight plans for the strike missions have two refueling points (1 for ingress and 1 egress). Just start the scenario and when at the first refuel point the strikers proceed to refuel while the escorts do not. The strikers continue and the escorts follow them without refueling. The north mission escorts make it with the strikers and were able to refuel on the egress. The southern escorts proceed the same way but right before they are needed, they bail out and go refuel.
Even if I try to manually set the escorts to refuel, they refuse to do so.
Thank you for looking at this.

Operation Sling of David, 2014 Practice.zip

Thanks, in current internal build (so for the next update) things are improved a bit, but there are still some issues in this scenario.

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