[taildragger]

No secrets. The Brits I believe asked us for refuelers in the 80's as they were in a pissing match with Congress, and they would not let Boeing sell the tankers to them.

They asked Israel to engineer a like system and they did and sold it to the Brits

[Tommyjo]

You seem to be a bit mixed up. Have you ever checked out the history of air refuelling? Check out the history of companies such as Flight Refuelling Systems and Cobham. It was the UK that developed the probe and drogue method that the Israelis used in the late 1960s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobham_plc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_refueling

The UK had no need to ask the US or anyone else for tanker aircraft nor to develop hose drum units. The UK had been selling them around the world for decades. The UK was developing air refuelling systems long before Israel existed as a nation.