A Spanish Air Force A330 MRTT aircraft on an 'elephant walk' in Australia

The Expeditionary Air Group sent by the Spanish Air Force to Australia is producing some very curious images.

The Spanish Air Force's long flight to Australia from inside an A330 MRTT
The RAAF shows the Spanish Air Force aircraft that have arrived in Australia

One of these demonstrations took place on July 24 at RAAF Amberley, Australia's largest military base, located in Queensland on the country's east coast. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) organized an "elephant walk," as a demonstration in which a group of aircraft performs a formation on a runway is known in aviation jargon. This walk included one of the two A330 MRTTs sent by Spain to Australia. The RAAF posted this video of the "elephant walk" last Thursday on its YouTube channel:

In the video, we can see this image of the Spanish A330 MRTT that participated in that demonstration, the T.24-02 (452-02), whose tail fin displays the commemorative emblem for the centenary of the great flights of Spanish aviation, an anniversary that began with the centenary of the flight of the Plus Ultra seaplane to Argentina in 1926. You can click on the images to enlarge them.

In addition to this Spanish aircraft, this "elephant parade" included aircraft from other air forces, specifically a KC-30A (Australian designation for the A330 MRTT) from the RAAF, a KC-3 Voyager (British designation for the A330-243 MRTT) from the Royal Air Force (RAF), an A330 MRTT from NATO's Multinational MRTT Unit (MMU), and a KC-135R Stratotanker from the United States Air Force (USAF). These last three flew to Australia, as did the Spanish A330 MRTT, to participate in the multinational exercise Pitch Black 26.

You can see more photos of this elephant walk here, published by the RAAF's multimedia portal. The aircraft were in this order:

• The RAAF KC-30A (A39-006, belonging to No. 33 Squadron, based at Amberley).
• The MMU's A330 MRTT (the T-060). This NATO unit has two bases, one in Eindhoven (Netherlands) and the other in Cologne (Germany).
• The RAF KC3 Voyager (ZZ332, belonging to No. 10 Squadron, based at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, England).
• The Spanish Air Force's A330 MRTT (the aforementioned T.24-02, assigned to Wing 45, based in Torrejón, Madrid).
• The USAF KC-135R (the 80104 or 58-0104, assigned to the 909th Air Refueling Squadron "Young Tigers", based in Kadena, Okinawa).

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Images: Royal Australian Air Force.