www.China-Defense.com

From examining open sources it appears that the only mode of operation observed to date has been "buddy" or escort-type refueling. However, the HU-6 is equipped with an air-to-air Tacan-like system (based on Russian RSBN) that provides "mutual detection" (apparently azimuth and range information) between tanker and receiver within 200 km and is obviously intended to facilitate rendezvous. These are likely to be by timing (what the USAF terms an "enroute" rendezvous), and it's possible that something similar to an anchor-type refueling - which is, in essence, refueling in a holding pattern - is planned for some situations.

According to some reports PLAAF H-6 pilots (presumably including the crews of the tanker versions) only get 80 flying hours a year. [1] Flying hours by themselves are not necessarily a good guide to the level of training. They are really used for higher-level planning purposes and relate to funds allotted for such things as fuel, oil, maintenance on the airframe, and other expenses, which are generally computed by flying hour. If you've ever rented an airplane you may recall you paid by the hour, same kind of thing. That said, 80 hours seems very low. This amount of time would only allow for one three-hour training sortie (which I would expect to be the shortest duration of flight that would allow the crew to meet minimum training requirements) every two weeks. For comparison, in the early 1990s (and it probably hasn't changed very much since then) KC-135 pilots, copilots, navigators and boom operators (who operate the refueling systems on the KC-135) might expect to fly around 250 hours per year. [2]

SAC KC-135 crews were also required to conduct thus-and-so-many takeoffs, landings, instrument approaches, rendezvous, air refuelings, navigation training legs, contacts (physical connection of the refueling boom to the receiver aircraft's receptacle), and so forth during these sorties. Some training - especially emergency procedures - could be done in a simulator, and the PLA's lack of available flying time may be why there is such emphasis in open-source Chinese literature on the use of simulators. It also implies extensive use of part-task trainers and other training devices to help keep aircrew current in their mission specialties without having to actually go fly. Using standard Russian practice as a guide, the crew probably plans the sortie, runs through all the planned events and any likely contingencies in a simulator and/or part-task trainer, flies the mission, then debriefs it exhaustively. This also suggests that Chinese unit commanders and flight instructors are under a lot of pressure to wring all possible benefit from every moment in the air!

Turning to operations, a sample operational sortie would have twelve J-8Ds supported by two HU-6s on three Combat Air Patrol (CAP) orbits (one flight of four aircraft per CAP) at 1200 km. Approaching a precomputed bingo point (around 800 km) the fighters would refuel. This would allow enough go-home gas for recovery in case any of the fighters had problems with the A/R. (For this reason it can be expected that the force would have a few spare fighters along, to replace any that had to turn back.) Approaching the CAP orbit the fighters would top off and the tankers would RTB. More tankers could then be dispatched to maintain the CAP as long as necessary.