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The Boeing RC-135 is a family of large reconnaissance aircraft built by Boeing and modified by a number of companies, including General Dynamics, Lockheed, LTV, E-Systems, L3Harris Technologies, and used by the United States Air Force and Royal Air Force to support theater and national level intelligence consumers with near real-time on-scene collection, analysis and dissemination capabilities.
Conducts RC-135 Rivet Joint flight operations in the European and Mediterranean theaters of operations as tasked by National Command Authorities and European Command. . Provides all operational management, aircraft maintenance, administration, and intelligence support to produce politically sensitive real-time intelligence data vital to national foreign
RC-135 Rivet Joint: United States ELINT / surveillance S/U/V/W: 22 [4] The breakdown is as follows: 1 RC-135S Cobra Ball, 2 RC-135U Combat Sent, 1 RC-135V Rivet Joint, 18 RC-135W Rivet Joint. U-2 Dragon Lady: United States high altitude reconnaissance: U-2S: 27 27 U-2S as of September 2023 (USAF Almanac). [1] 24 U-2S operational (WAF 2025). [2]
Beginning in January 2011, the unit has hosted training for flight and maintenance crews from No. 51 Squadron RAF in preparation for the delivery of the squadron's RC-135W Airseeker fleet. [ 2 ] On 7 October 2016, the E-4Bs under the 55th Wing moved to the USAF 8th Air Force.
The wing deployed a Rivet Joint RC-135 from Hellenikon Air Base, Greece, to Riyadh Air Base, Saudi Arabia, on 8 August 1990, and began 24-hour-a-day reconnaissance of the region two days later for Central Command Commander Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, under Operation Desert Shield. At the start of Operation Desert Storm, 18 January 1991, the wing ...
The squadron was reactivated by Strategic Air Command in 1947 as a reconnaissance squadron, equipped with Boeing RB-17 Flying Fortress aircraft. It flew aerial photography, mapping, charting, and photo reconnaissance missions, some of which flew around borders of the Soviet Union and over the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany.
Postwar redesignated as RC-45A in 1948; retired 1953 [56] [57] EC-121 Warning Star A military version of the Lockheed Constellation , the aircraft was designed to serve as an airborne early warning system to supplement the Distant Early Warning Line using two large radomes, a vertical dome above and a horizontal one below the fuselage.
One aircraft, serial 61–2666, has been modified as an NC-135W to test systems and equipment used on RC-135V and W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft. As of September 2023, 61-2666 has been withdrawn from use and stored at DMA. [10] [11] From 1975 to 1984, the US used an NKC-135 for its Airborne Laser Lab program. The modified NKC-135A ...