Defense News:
Tanker Arrives for Conversion to Intel Role for RAF
LONDON - The first of three Boeing KC-135 tankers scheduled to be converted to Rivet Joint signals intelligence-gathering aircraft for the Royal Air Force has arrived at prime contractor L3 Communications' U.S. factory.
This will kick off what British officials have termed an unparalleled cooperation agreement, allowing RAF crews to co-man U.S. Air Force Rivet Joint RC-135W aircraft in combined operations until the new aircraft are delivered. An agreement to include the British machines in a joint capability upgrade, support and maintenance program with their U.S. counterparts until at least 2025 was ground-breaking, according to Ministry of Defence program leader Bill Chrispin, quoted in an in-house magazine.
The British are scheduled to withdraw the remaining two Nimrod R1's that have been providing signals intelligence in places like Afghanistan sometime next year, leaving a three-year break until the first of the new U.S.-provided aircraft enters service in 2014. The final aircraft will not be delivered until 2018, an RAF spokesman said.
Analysts reckon U.S. Rivet Joint's partly crewed by British personnel will be tasked to fill a key capability gap in Britain's defenses until the fleet of Boeing aircraft arrives. The spokesman declined to comment on how the British will plug the hole in its intelligence-gathering capability. Four RAF crews are due to start training at Offutt Air Base, Neb., next year. Airborne mission operators, pilots, ground exploitation operators and support personnel will be involved.
The British program, known as Airseeker, is expected to cost 700 million pounds ($1.1 billion) in procurement and a further 500 million pounds in support costs, including co-manning, up to 2025. Although the Airseeker aircraft will be British-owned and -operated, the aircraft will become part of a combined fleet of 20 U.K./U.S. machines and associated systems managed by a team based at L3's Greenville, Texas, factory.
Under terms of the deal, the British aircraft will be refurbished and the mission systems upgraded every four years, according to the Desider magazine.