A shortage of tankers and the emergence of new tactics are materializing as some of the early "lessons learned" from one of the largest air campaigns ever conducted by the U.S. Marine Corps. Its air campaign has been shaped to a large extent by the fact that the service has only 24 KC-130 tankers in the region, a relatively small number compared with the number of strike aircraft it has assembled. What further complicated the tanker issue is that most KC-130 sorties were dedicated to transporting fuel for helicopters, as well as tanks and other ground vehicles, to forward areas. It is a "rare occurrence" for a Marine F/A-18 or AV-8N to be refueled in the air, said a senior Marine Air Group-13 representative, who described the tanker shortage as "huge."
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