KC-135 Airborne Command Post former Q HABU refueler?

[chopper2004]

I know during the Vietnam war, there were a handful of KC-135A used as airborne command posts (think some were Plattsburgh based airframes). A couple of years ago I saw one of the locally based Bloody Hundreth depart (my photos below) and had extra aerials atop. Have been informted this is a T model possibly one of the few former Q models used to refuel the SR-71B...

Maybe SASLess can shed some light on airborne command posts used in SEA?

Cheers

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1333/quid_command_post_kc135_1_67d611021aa578c63626780c71042603a5 0ca0ff.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1333/quid_command_post_kc135_3_f748a2e5b1c8cdc5e1d9cfa97025836e16 0d77be.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1333/quid_command_post_kc135_11_acfa49a99befaecd68c2b986428cb983c d29566e.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1333/quid_command_post_kc135_5_a12a955e0ea2445a604275acdb13fa4569 80df9a.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1333/quid_command_post_kc135_14_b384d5efb3e1d0ad02e9f16d846079a57 8005fd1.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1333/quid_command_post_kc135_20_4762bc659f04d9784b0cc580a18d85233 38b8076.jpg

[BEagle]

Why do you need to know this information?

[chopper2004]

Why do you need to know this information?

I don’t...am just curious ...as it reminds me of the old 10th Looking Glass Silk Purse..

plus my my question is more on about use during Vietnam war.

cheers

[SASless]

My background as an Army Chinook Pilot during Vietnam years did not expose me to much to do with Command and Control Operations by the Air Force.....I had little enough to do with Army C&C.

My standard day consisted of being given a Mission Sheet that contained all the data I needed to conduct my flying....Show Time,, Pick Up and Destination locations, Radio Call sign of the supported unit, radio frequencies, numbers of Lifts, general description of what was to be carried, and number of Blade Hours authorized to the unit.

We then loaded up and went to work.

There were a lot of radio callsigns used by Army and Air Force Units....and I am sure the Navy and Marines and ways of identifying their aircraft.

Almost 900 C-135's have been built in a long list of Models.....the Q model became T models when the new engines were installed


Beagle old boy......the Vietnam War is fifty years gone....what does it matter what he is asking.

Please don't suggest asking questions about C&C back then....or what antennas are on an airframe has to do with OPSEC.

If you can photograph the aircraft in clear view of an airfield....then it really doesn't matter what you are looking at.

That alone will not expose the full capabilities of the aircraft no matter what it is.

We know the U-2, WB-57, F-4, F-15, F-15, F-18 all have Recon versions and Electronic Warfare versions.....we know where a lot of these aircraft were and are being used today.....talking about that harms nothing.

Oh the other hand...if you are an insider and are talking out of school about genuine classified capabilities that is quite a different thing.


Best answer I can give is "Google is your friend on this.".

[air pig]

I thought that the ACPs in SE Asia were EC 121 Warning Star conversions of the Super Constellation. Continetal US including Hawaii and Europe had the EC 135.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_EC-121_Warning_Star

[RAFEngO74to09]

58-0069 was indeed at one time a KC-135Q SR-71A refueler, had the KC-135R upgrade and subsequently became a KC-135T.

Lots of interesting information for anyone interested in tanker history here: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a430855.pdf This reference mentions COMBAT LIGHTENING - the use of 4 x modified KC-135A for radio relay in Vietnam.

Multiple references - including this one - refer to it as COMBAT LIGHTNING - the use of KC-135A to relay information from the data fusion center known as "TEABALL" . Fascinating "space age" stuff for 1972 - including triggering the IFF on Mig 17/19/21 to reveal their location and feeding that to USAF aircraft in almost real-time. Tails Through Time: Operation Teaball: Network-Centric Real-Time Intelligence During Vietnam (http://www.tailsthroughtime.com/2011/03/operation-teaball-network-centric-real.html)

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/750x500/teaball_combatlightning_e2833354c73b54475fb5a324a3f0ef07b0c4 451f.jpg

[RAFEngO74to09]

The 10 ACCS aircraft that were the EUCOM Command Posts for "SILK PURSE" were easily recognized by the large black dorsal antenna - 4 aircraft were based at Mildenhall Jan 70 to Dec 91.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1024x678/boeing_ec_135h_28717_148_29_2c_usa_air_force_an1131030_39792 31c62068a8107db50e6594189e3f6d5706c.jpg

[Airbubba]

I remember my BOQ reservation in Mildenhall had been cancelled when I arrived in the late 1970's. I was told that the rooms were needed by the Silk Purse Alert Group.

[chopper2004]

My background as an Army Chinook Pilot during Vietnam years did not expose me to much to do with Command and Control Operations by the Air Force.....I had little enough to do with Army C&C.

My standard day consisted of being given a Mission Sheet that contained all the data I needed to conduct my flying....Show Time,, Pick Up and Destination locations, Radio Call sign of the supported unit, radio frequencies, numbers of Lifts, general description of what was to be carried, and number of Blade Hours authorized to the unit.

We then loaded up and went to work.

There were a lot of radio callsigns used by Army and Air Force Units....and I am sure the Navy and Marines and ways of identifying their aircraft.

Almost 900 C-135's have been built in a long list of Models.....the Q model became T models when the new engines were installed


Beagle old boy......the Vietnam War is fifty years gone....what does it matter what he is asking.

Please don't suggest asking questions about C&C back then....or what antennas are on an airframe has to do with OPSEC.

If you can photograph the aircraft in clear view of an airfield....then it really doesn't matter what you are looking at.

That alone will not expose the full capabilities of the aircraft no matter what it is.

We know the U-2, WB-57, F-4, F-15, F-15, F-18 all have Recon versions and Electronic Warfare versions.....we know where a lot of these aircraft were and are being used today.....talking about that harms nothing.

Oh the other hand...if you are an insider and are talking out of school about genuine classified capabilities that is quite a different thing.


Best answer I can give is "Google is your friend on this.".

Thanks SAS

actuslly I was after info from SEA regarding. Your knowledge of following lol

- Eagle One calling ‘to bag them up in ice’ and be reanimated 2 decades later for hostage rescue on a dam

- Major Stryker’s activities pre 3 Mile Island involving a chap with steel in his limbs and trendy Clint Eastwood sideburns

- The names of all the Medusa hit squad apart from the traitor Cain

- and proof of the Smoking mans invovlement with the JFK assaisantion

Can’t remember in which boook about Borneo where a Shackleton or something similar used as an airborne command post...nothing exotic as VC-10 ( our equivalent of the 135)

cheers

cheers

[SASless]

Then there was the YO thing that wasn't in Mogadishu with a Bell 212 SAR aircraft that wasn't there either.

Later when I ran into one of the 212 Pilots he and I had to grab a quick cuppa and decide where we had not met as his employer history did not match his Resume.


http://www.wmof.com/yo-3a.htm