Random thought I just had before my morning coffee kicks in.
As the KC-46 line gets up some steam, with Airbus tankers in an off the shelf status, wondering if there's opportunity for a private venture to acquire and employ a dozen or so tankers over the next several years.
DoD has found itself woefully unable to support it's training needs in both A2A and A2G, leading to the rise of Blue Air, Drakken, and ATAC, among others. Likewise, for years Omega has been filling the gaps in DoD's probe and drogue coverage, and the premium on those assets is going nowhere but up as the numbers of grey tails goes down. Seems to me that a handful of tankers available on a contract basis is going to have no trouble finding business in the coming decades. As an aside, while they're not fighting fires, the heavy fire tankers haul trash in the off season; same model could be applied here.