JN
Crew: (flight crew) five (augmented) - three pilots, two navigators; (mission flight crew) 21-27, depending on mission requirements, minimum consisting of three electronic warfare officers, 14 intelligence operators and four inflight/airborne maintenance technicians
From open source
Factsheets : RC-135V/W Rivet Joint USAF official factsheet.
Done the reading and I read "27" mission crew, which is greater than your R1 figure - and I know they can mix and match as we do on R1 for a particular mission. EWOs or Ravens can augment above the number of 3. We will also get a say in what type of aircrew (WSO, WSOp or AT) we employ on RAF RJ.
Here are some more pictures of the other "roomier parts" of the RJ!
Next you'll claim I've photo-shopped the images!
Chris argues JSF over Typhoon, RC-135 over R1, and (doubtless) P-8 over MRA4 too.
He does have a point. I for one am fed up with under-performing, over-budget and late offerings from t'Bungling Baron (to quote BEagle) - Mantis is already late by 6 months and they've only been building it for a year or so. I have flown one of their products for over a decade and recently converted to a US aircraft - chalk and cheese comes to mind!
So go ahead, believe that we should buy British (which is nearly always more expensive) and then have to replace/modify it with UOR (which is also more expensive) when it doesn't perform for ops. Urgent radar mods, software upgrades, defensive aids, weapon changes have mostly been my experience of THEIR products when going to war - the US aircraft now on ops needed none of this.
I believe it is time to say "enough is enough" and it is time for the MoD's Defence Budget to stop bailing out t'Bungling Baron of Blackburn - or how about a profit share if we do (they did make £1.75bn last year!)???
The B Word