The Launch Company Showcases Mobile, Resilient Fueling Hardware in Program with Pacific Air Forces

The Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, is a major command of the U.S. Air Force, whose primary mission is to provide U.S. Pacific Command integrated expeditionary Air Force capabilities to defend the Homeland, promote stability, dissuade/deter aggression, and swiftly defeat enemies. PACAF’s area of responsibility extends from the west coast of the U.S. to the east coast of Africa and from the Arctic to the Antarctic, covering more than 100 million square miles, much of which is covered by bodies of water and/or extremely remote areas. This poses a challenge for maintaining operations for aircraft that require frequent refueling and plays an integral part of national defense in these areas.

PACAF came to Voyager’s The Launch Company looking for a flexible, inconspicuous, mobile fueling solution for military aircraft, and what resulted is our containerized mobile fueling solution. The Mobile Fueling Container (MFC) is a self-sufficient fuel storage container packaged with a diesel-powered pump, filtration, and two hose reels for simultaneous fueling of multiple aircraft. The current system is optimized for fueling of fixed wing fighter and heavy lift aircraft, as well as a variety of rotocraft and designed to be deployed inconspicuously in low-infrastructure or remote areas.

While the MFC units designed for PACAF are designed to serve traditional aircraft, it is modularly designed so that it is adaptable to any fueling requirement or interface including launch vehicles and spacecraft fueling applications

“We adapted our experience in building mobile, resilient, fueling hardware for rockets and spacecraft to design a fueling solution that would support PACAF’s unique needs,” said Ben Kellie, founder and CEO of The Launch Company. “This particular project showcases The Launch Company’s flexibility and range of capabilities and shows that we are able to build standardized ground support equipment for a wide variety of missions and customers.”

The Launch Company is currently building the world’s first multi-user, mobile launch site designed to service the widest range of launch vehicles in the market. With an experienced team of experts who have collectively worked on every launch pad in the U.S., The Launch Company continues to innovate and disrupt the way we think about the traditional launch process with the goal to provide faster, cheaper, and more reliable access to space.