[Daus]

The B-2 has a two man crew for no apparent purpose.

You comfortable refueling that big puppy in drone mode? I don't think we are there yet.

[laplata]

Excellent point!

[Joe Boucher]

i ALWAYS am nervous while in the vicinity of a plane being refueled.
CFI impressed “Always be aware, not just of your actions, but those of nature and Bozos”

[Blueflag]

The public fuel capacity is 167,000 pounds. That works out to a ~6000 mile combat radius using publicly available data. IIRC a KC-135 can carry in excess of 80,000# of fuel. So refuel it once out, once back, or more ... over 20,000 mile combat radius.

But it is subsonic ... so it is in the air a LOOOOONG time.

I betcha refueling could be done better with on-board electronics. It’s already fly by wire anyways.

Just my opinion.