42 Years Of Flight: The McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender’s History

By the 1980s, the United States Air Force had come to understand the importance of air-to-air refueling and noted the critical need to keep fighters airborne for extended periods of time. With air-to-air tankers deployed alongside fighter jets, the Air Force could secure extremely large areas of airspace, enforce no-fly zones, and maintain an extended presence anywhere a conflict might arise, but early-generation tankers were no longer meeting the organization's needs.