The recent 7 J-10C non-landing direct flight to Saudi Arabia information makes our eyes shine, after participating in the second Saudi Arabian defense exhibition performance, and the local 10th direct flight to China, J-10C can not land for refueling and replenishment, because there is a tank-20 with the guarantee, so how many fighters can a tank-20 be filled? Let's have a look today. 
The Y-20 is an air tanker modified on the basis of the Y-20 transport aircraft, which has better flight control performance and in-flight refueling capacity than the current tanker aircraft such as the H-6 and Il-78. The refueling pod of the Y-20 is the latest development of our country, in addition to the larger amount of fuel, it will not be affected when the aircraft turns, it can still ensure the fuel delivery capacity, greatly improve the fuel delivery efficiency in actual combat, and in addition to the refueling pods on both sides of the wing, there is also a fuel delivery device in the tail, so it can refuel three fighters in the air at the same time.
Of course, it is not enough to have the refueling tank-20, we also need to have the technology of refueling in the air, how difficult is this technology, it is called the three most difficult subjects in the field of flight, together with the landing of carrier-based aircraft and the stall spiral, and only a few countries can master it so far. Airplanes need to overcome the interference of air currents during flight, which is equivalent to sitting in a car to thread a needle. Therefore, mastering the technology of aerial refueling is of strategic importance. 
On April 15, 1986, the U.S. military launched airstrikes on military targets in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, and Benghazi. In this operation, the US military led 24 fighter-bombers and 6 electronic warfare planes, as well as 28 air refueling crews to form an air attack group, which took off from Britain, flew over the Atlantic, France and Spain, and finally arrived in Libya, which lasted 6 hours, and attacked Libya 5,188 kilometers away, after 6 air refueling, this time the total journey was more than 10,000 kilometers, which shows the military significance of air refueling in modern warfare. 
So how many fighters can our tank-20 be filled? According to reports, the YF-20 has two aviation fuel tanks with a capacity of 18 tons installed in the cargo hold, which are integrated into the aircraft fuel system, making its maximum fuel supply as high as 1135 tons. As a single-engine medium fighter, the J-10C has a total fuel capacity of about 4-5 tons, so the tank-20 can refuel 20 J-10Cs when fully loaded. Of course, with the difference in combat radius, the fuel supply of the tank-20 is also different. 
At a combat radius of 1000 km, the oil supply of the Y-20 is 90 tons, at a radius of 2000 km, at a radius of 70 tons, and at a radius of 3500 km, the oil supply is 415 tons, usually air refueling will not be very full, for example, the switchboard is 5 tons of oil, generally will be added to about 4 tons. Therefore, even if the Y-20 accompanies the J-10C throughout the flight, its fuel supply is enough for 7 aircraft. For example, with a combat radius of 1,000 kilometers, the YF-20 can fill up 2,570 ordinary family cars, or 128 long-distance trucks with a capacity of 1,000 liters. A proper refueling artifact. 
Under normal circumstances, the refueling aircraft will choose whether to accompany the whole flight for refueling or regional refueling according to the mission requirements and flight distance. The addition of the Y-20 allows all our fighters to fly farther, and the J-20 and J-16 can fly out of the first island chain. And this is far from the final form of the Y-20, which is now only 70 percent of the Y-20. At present, the Oil-20 is heading towards 2In the 0 direction, the replacement of the turbofan-20 will have greater thrust and more load, and it is bound to go to a higher level in performance.