I had a few questions about in flight refueling and I'm hoping one of our boom operators, and I know there are a few here :-), can answer. Just some general questions...

Lets say you're dragging a group of F-16s across the Atlantic, can one KC-10 handle all of them across, or does another one rotate in? How often do they re-fuel? Does everyone fly at the speed of the tanker?

Another question is the various aircraft from different countries being re-fueled by the USAF. We've all seen pictures of German Tornados, etc. getting re-fueled from KC-10s or even KC-135s, did those planes have to be modified, to accept the Air-Force/Navy style drogue or are they all pretty much standard.

And finally, sorry for the many questions, looking at this picture:


Why would there be a need for a tanker to get gas in flight, besides the obvious that he's out of gas? I assume that goes for his needs, and not to pump to other guys?