Mid-Fight Refueling (MFR), in particular, has become the go-to method of keeping fighter pilots alive during air combat. When a pilot gets in trouble, it’s usually not due to damage. Rather, he gets himself into that condition because of errors in judgment and tactics — making a move in an unexpected direction or failing to execute a basic manuver. When he is in trouble, and there is no time to escape, the best chance is a quick-thinking ground spotter who calls for a MFR. MFR may seem like an extravagance, but it’s actually a cost-effective way to prevent costly losses. Just one minute of MFR can give the pilot and his plane a crucial 60 seconds of life, according to Lt. Col. Paul LaRocque, Air Force Materiel Command’s Chief of Research Development, Test and Evaluation. And if you factor in how expensive each air-to-air missile can be — a cost of about $500,000 — you realize how much a squadron can be spared. In other words, by carrying this gas with you, a pilot can keep his plane and himself alive through a long combat sortie. He can even return to base and land with a full load of weapons and fuel, leaving the airplane as ready to fight again as if it had never been damaged. LaRocque said that the MFR has been tested in all types of airplanes, ranging from fighters like the F-15 and F-16 to the A-10. Its effectiveness in every case has been the same: It can save the lives of an airplane and its pilot. So what is it? The answer is a very large metal bottle half-full of a gas called JP-10, a chemical compound known more for its industrial uses than military uses. It is used in commercial jet fuel and some home heating oil. According to LaRocque, JP-10 is one of the best gas to use for MFR. It is about 2,000 times as dense as air, which means that it stays together better than any other gas. What’s more, it keeps its chemical properties even at high temperatures, a necessity in a cockpit during a fire or explosion. And there’s no fire or damage to the airplane after using it. “A JP-10 system, if fully employed, could essentially reduce the demand for pilots in terms of training and the number of sorties needed in the air-to-air arena,” LaRocque said. “You will be able to accomplish many more things with fewer sorties.” MFR has a number of variations, most of which have to do with where in the cockpit it is. LaRocque likes a bottle on the left-hand side of the instrument panel (a.k.a. a wingman’s seat), because it makes it as easy as possible for the copilot, who is doing the refueling. For a real test of courage, the copilot can be strapped in. He has to be a very brave pilot. The cockpit has to be clean, clean, clean. The last thing you want is moisture. The pilot then must close the cockpit canopy and seal off all windows. After that, he opens the cockpit’s left-hand window, which has to be set out of the normal airstream. The pilot then uses one of the airplane’s air hoses to connect the fuel container to the in-aircraft system. After that, he’s home free. It is a bit more complicated than that, of course. There are several steps in the procedure that must be completed properly. That means that the plane must be clean, with no dirt or debris. The pilot should check the fuel pressure gauge to make sure that the fuel is flowing to the left-hand side of the plane. The left-hand fuel line should be connected. The captain (or copilot) then turns on the MFR to the left-hand side of the plane and operates the switch and nozzle. The captain should turn on the fuel, then close the canopy and seal it off. After that, the cockpit is opened to the air and the pilot sits down. This takes time, since the oxygen system must be put on backup and the cockpit sealed off before oxygen starts flowing. The pilot is in the loop, so to speak, because he must confirm that everything is going according to plan. But the captain can’t go back to the cockpit unless everything is working properly. It must be clear that he’s doing a procedure rather than a routine takeoff or landing. Once in the air, the captain must pull the circuit breaker, disconnecting the JP-10 from the in-aircraft power system. This is a very critical point, because the JP-10 has its own fuel system, and if it’s connected to the in-aircraft system, it could all of a sudden spill. The fuel is then transferred to the left-hand wing and from there to the engine on the outside of the wing. The left wing tanks must be full. Finally, there is a check for leaks. If there are no leaks, the captain can go back to the cockpit and start a mission, or even land. The whole procedure is like an assembly line process. Every step must be carried out in order, and this makes a difference in safety, LaRocque said. At the time of this writing, Air Force Materiel Command had a team working on one of the biggest challenges in the world of JP-10: getting a bottle of JP-10 to fit inside a standard KC-135 or KC-10 tanker aircraft. The MFR concept would work best if it fit in the tanker, but it has to be as small as possible, with no protruding parts that could snag in the tanker’s landing gear or flaps. It’s quite a challenge, but these kinds of obstacles are what the Air Force Materiel Command does best. MFR “is a system that is going to be used on every airborne platform that has any significant air-to-air capability,” LaRocque said. “Fighters, bombers, air refueling tankers.” And there’s just one more thing. In a press conference, a reporter asked the same question to both LaRocque and Brig. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, head of Air Combat Command. Both said the same thing: The JP-10 in the tanker would be used for refueling the KC-135. In other words, JP-10 would be used to fuel the refueling tanker. This would have the net effect of increasing the Air Force’s overall capability by using the JP-10 as a fuel source. In other words, JP-10 would be used to keep the Air Force at war. It’s not clear how many aircraft can be fitted with the MFR system, but, according to LaRocque, MFR can be flown on almost every U.S. aircraft, including an F-15, F-16, F/A-18, A-10 and B-1, and some other aircraft can be modified. On the air refueling side, tankers like the KC-135 could use the system and also the KC-10. The tanker would be able to refuel itself. If the tanker’s refueling hose and nozzle can’t reach where the pilot is in trouble, he’d just send a hose into his cockpit, where it would be linked to the onboard system. The KC-135 could also be refueled in midair, which would be a big time-saver in some cases. The Air Force should be able to produce a few MFRs each year, though not at the scale that the Air Force is envisioning. But one day the MFR might be the norm. Why the JP-10? It’s a question the Air Force can answer better than I can, but my take is this: At least two things are true about JP-10. One, it is extremely combustible, as it is a fuel. Two, its density and viscosity makes it extremely useful for refueling. All military personnel are trained in what to do in the case of a fuel leak or fire. But, like the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this case, that means keeping the JP-10 far from the fuel system. MFR can do that. So JP-10 might be just what the doctor ordered.