Ferry range is only achievable if there are suitable diversion alternates en route and near the destination. If you're flying over long stretches of water or desert, then your ferry range is substantially reduced as you need to carry sufficient fuel to get to an alternate or diversion airfield which could be hours away.
At a cost of tens of thousands of dollars per hours, I doubt the tanker is here to just support jets going over to Pearce...these jets could stop at ASP, EDI or other places half way across to refuel if needed, and have done so the past for west coast deployments.
|