USAF Tanker boom with basket attached

As ED is redoing the Refuelling code/logic I'm sure they will fix/add features like this.

i wasnt aware they were revisiting the refueling code. source?

I was a E&E tech for kc-135s and I'm guessing why they didn't do that unitl later updates of the kc-135 is it would need a redesign to fuel and wing plumbing. Most of the fuel is held in tank bladders in the fuselage under the cargo compartment. Basically where the luggage would go for a commercial airliner

And the wings are already filled with electrical wiring, fuel to engines, bleed air ducts.... And the wing flexes enough that when the bleed air duct is pulled it's a utter pain in the ass to put it back in. So fitting plumbing with a high enough flow rate to feed a AAR system, even just probe and drogue system, is a considerable upgrade. Also the air force for every change has to be checked and double checked before implementing it. So versus the BDA the pods attachment is alot more involved.

There are a small number of KC-135s that do have refueling receptacles. They are the KC-135RT models...7 of them. They are used for special ops refueling. A probe for drogue refueling would be highly impractical. You can offload gas 4-6 times faster using the boom, which is why you see B-52s and other large jets refueling with the boom. With the drogue, you are offloading gas slightly faster than the receiver is burning it. When I see pics of foreign heavy jets with a probe, I shudder thinking how long they have to hand onto the basket to fill their tanks.