The RAF cannot independently air-to-air refuel their new fighter jets, with insiders blaming successive cuts to the UK’s Armed Forces.

However, the jets must be air-to-air refuelled by a boom – a tube-like device which trails from the air tanker.

The UK’s only air tanker, the RAF Voyager, does not have one. Instead, it uses a drogue – like a hosepipe – which fixes to a probe on the plane.

The different systems mean that the two will not be able to work together, and the UK will instead rely on boom-capable air tankers from Nato allies including the US.

The UK is understood to be keen to purchase their own boom-capable air tanker, with RAF insiders saying that it must have the ability to air-to-air refuel in both ways.

One military source in the UK said plans for developing one were lost to “cost-cutting” several years ago.

The RAF Voyager completing air-to-air refuelling of fighter jets with a drogue during a joint RAF and Royal Navy exercise in 2021 (Photo: MOD)

The next generation fighter jet currently being developed by the UK in partnership with Japan and Italy – the Tempest – is also expected to use boom refuelling, insiders said, strengthening the case for the UK to have their own compatible refueller.

Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, who left the RAF as their most experienced operational commander, said that the UK needed their own boom tanker and predicted they would have one within six years.

Retrofitting the existing Voyager with a boom is felt to be too expensive, Bagwell said, with ordering new ones a more viable plan.

New fighter jets dependent on US

Bagwell said that a more pressing problem was that the nuclear bombs that the jets will carry will remain under US control and require American permission to be handed over and launched.

Once this hurdle has been crossed, the US is likely to provide the refuelling.

“One assumes that if they’re going to let us use their nuclear bomb, they are probably give us some gas to get it to the target,” he said.

There have long been concerns that the UK is too dependent on US defence, particularly for their fighter jets, particularly since the re-election of Donald Trump, who has pivoted away from European security.

Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey on the flight deck of HMS Prince of Wales in April with an F35B (Photo: Richard Pohle/AFP)

The UK already has another type of F-35 jet – the B model – which is dependent on the US for spare parts and maintenance, and Germany has recently purchased dozens more.

The purchase of new US-reliant F-35As and bombs is likely to rankle some of the UK’s allies, who have been calling for European countries to move away from US dependency and build their own security networks.

European officials last week said the US had been clear that Europe needed to take charge of their own security and that the continent must act quickly to shore up their own capabilities, independent of the White House.