The United States Armed Forces are considered one of the most powerful and powerful army forces in the world. This statement is confirmed not only by a large number of soldiers and officers, but also by an impressive amount of various equipment, among which a special place is occupied by the US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft RC-135. This aircraft has been in service for quite some time, however, thanks to regular full-fledged modernization, it is still a fairly mobile and highly effective means of conducting reconnaissance operations. This aircraft will be discussed in this article.
Some facts
The U.S. reconnaissance aircraft described is an airborne unit for collecting, thoroughly processing, and then transmitting data to the main point. At the heart of the combat unit are the technical characteristics of the Boeing C-135 Stratolifter. The equipment for the RC-135 is produced by various companies, including: L-3 Communications, E-Systems, General Dynamics.
Creation and modernization
The specified U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was originally designed to replace the morally and physically obsolete Boeing RB-50 Superfortress in the sky. In the first place, it was planned to make nine cars, but as a result, only four of them left the assembly line. All of them were an improved version of the Boeing 739-700, since the same engines were used. At the same time, the refueling system was completely dismantled, and in its place were installed cameras used for reconnaissance and photography.
In turn, the RC-135B version was made in the amount of ten cars. They were also based on an aerotanker. As "all-seeing eyes" were used cameras and a special radar SLAR.
2005 was a significant year for RC-135 aircraft, since without exception they underwent significant modernization (engines, navigation equipment and other elements and systems were completely replaced).
Exploitation
The US reconnaissance aircraft under consideration was originally owned by the US Air Force strategic command. But, since 1992, he was reassigned to the Air Force combat command. All such machines have a permanent place of their base - this is the Offut air base.
Aircraft took an active part in military conflicts in various parts of our planet. The aircraft were involved during the long war in Vietnam, during the special operations Eldorado Canyon, Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Unconquered Freedom.
River Joint
This is the code name for the US Air Force RC-135V reconnaissance aircraft. This vessel initially had a rather marvelous appearance: the “inflated cheeks” of the RTR system with an elongated bow, literally stuffed with AN / AMQ-15 communications reconnaissance equipment. Under the fuselage, there are a number of antennas of various calibers. There were three whip antennas on the radar fairing adapter. Under the center wing, four-piece petal antennas were installed with oval plates. Behind the wing there was a place for an L-shaped antenna and a few more whip antennas.
The birth of the RC-135W
In turn, the US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft RC-135W differed from its counterpart RC-135V in that it had no air intakes for heat exchangers on special engine nacelles located outside the engines. After a certain period of time, the "swollen cheeks" of the machines were slightly modified in order to improve aerodynamic performance. Also, the front parts of the fairings underwent changes - they became somewhat longer, as a result of which the left fairing even slightly closed the entrance hatch and the cover of the latter was finally modified.
In 1990, when the machines began their work in the military conflict zone of the former Yugoslavia, engineers installed special installations generating infrared noise over the nozzles of all available engines. This was done in order to increase the degree of protection against anti-aircraft missiles equipped with a thermal homing head.
Command
The US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft is controlled by a fairly large team, which includes:
- Officers of the combat aviation command.
- Three EW (radar safety) operators: automatic reconnaissance, manual reconnaissance, senior shift. The objectives of this group is to track the locations of enemy aircraft, as well as anti-aircraft missile systems by their radar emissions, which, in turn, are intercepted by the AEELS system.
- 12-16 operators included in the Air Intelligence Agency. Their combat mission is to use radio-frequency reconnaissance systems in the range of ultra-short waves to conduct radio surveillance of interceptions by fighters, as well as the communications of the enemy’s air defense sectors. That is, in fact, these soldiers are working on disclosing the intentions of the enemy.
- 7 technical operators controlling detailed supervision of all radar emissions of objects located in the air, on land, in the sea. In parallel with this data, specialists refine the results of automatic search and classification using manual reconnaissance. After that, the military form service messages detailing the electronic situation. All information received is transmitted to analysts in the working group of the aircraft.
The leading analyst-controller is directly involved in the formation of a map of the radar situation, in whose submission there are two more analysts: the first is engaged in ground targets, the second - in the air. In addition, they all control that all information transmitted from the aircraft to the center is updated every two minutes (at least), and in case of urgent need - once every ten seconds.
Separately, it is worth paying attention to two more operators that perform the detection and registration of all non-standard or unidentified signals that were not previously used by the enemy. This is done in order to timely and fully update the electronic warfare system. Operators also monitor all attempts by the enemy to overcome the defense of the communications system of American aviation.
In addition to the above specialists who are constantly on their battlefield, there is also an operator engaged in the transfer of data to the E-3 AWACS aircraft and a couple of specialists engaged in flight maintenance.
Aircraft Bottleneck
A U.S. reconnaissance aircraft has a significant problem in the form of limited communications between it and the E-3 AWACS. Data transmission is carried out digitally in TADIL-A format.
It is this channel that passes absolutely all the symbolic and graphic images of the air horizon generated by the operators of the E-3 vessel through the radar method. After processing, the information is returned back, but in digital form. At the same time, it is supplemented by a variety of special markers for the recognition and differentiation of all air targets without exception.
Flight performance
The US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft that we study in detail as its main indicators has the following indicators:
- Wingspan –39.88 meters.
- The total length of the aircraft is 39.2 meters.
- The height of the aircraft is 12.7 meters;
- The area of ​​each wing is 226.03 square meters.
- The mass of the empty plane is 46403 kg.
- Maximum take-off weight - 124967 kg.
- Engine Modification - Pratt Whitney TF33-P-9 Turbojet Engine.
- Thrust - 4 x 80.07 kN.
- The maximum permissible flight speed is 991 km / h.
- Cruising speed - 901 km / h.
- The practical range is 9100 km.
- The radius of the machine - 4308
- The maximum flight altitude is 12375 meters.
Black Sea incident
On January 25, 2016, a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft approached the border of the Russian Federation. As a result, the Su-27 was lifted into the sky, which intercepted an American aircraft. According to Captain Daniel Hernandez, spokesman for the European command of the U.S. Navy, the interception of their reconnaissance aircraft was extremely unsafe and unprofessional, which cannot but worry the American leadership, because this incident only aggravates an already tense situation. Also, an American officer claimed that the RC-135U Combat performed a planned flight in international space over the Black Sea, without violating anyone's state borders. Representatives of Russia, in turn, noticed that the American plane was in the sky with the transponder turned off.
According to information received from The Washington Free Beacon, a Russian fighter flew six meters to an American plane, after which a certain period of time flew nearby, side by side. Then the Russian pilot made a maneuver and abruptly sidestepped. As a result, the jet stream from the Su-27 literally pushed the US air reconnaissance, because of which he lost control.
Duel over the Baltic
April 14, 2016 once again, a U.S. reconnaissance plane flew up to the borders of Russia. It is logical that such a situation did not go unnoticed by the Air Force of the Russian Federation. The command of the Russians decided to stop an attempt to violate the state border, for which a jet fighter was launched into the air. As a result, the Su-27 was intercepted by a U.S. scout. This maneuver, according to the American military leaders, was again carried out in a bold manner and carried danger to the crew of the American aircraft.
In addition, the command of the US Army expressed "deep concern", which was caused by "unprofessional and unsafe actions of the Russian pilot."
Japanese conflict
On May 22, 2016, the Russian air defense system discovered the American reconnaissance aircraft RC-135 over the Sea of ​​Japan. At that moment, he carried out reconnaissance in the immediate vicinity of the border of the Russian Federation. It is noteworthy that the US aircraft was in the sky with the transponder turned off and did not bring information about the route to the dispatchers in the region, which contributed to the danger of collisions between civilian aircraft. In addition, the American aircraft was located exactly on the echelons where regular civil aviation flights were carried out. Of course, a US reconnaissance aircraft intercepted a Su-27.
In order to clarify what happened, the military attache at the US Embassy was called into the Russian Ministry of Defense . Russian leaders drew the attention of their American counterpart to the prevention of future situations and the adoption of appropriate measures to guarantee the safety of aircraft in the sky.
Somewhat later, it became known that the reconnaissance aircraft was visually detected by the crew of a Swiss long-range passenger aircraft. According to the pilots, they saw a heavy four-engine aircraft, which did not give any identification marks.
Confrontation with the Chinese
Once again, the interception of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft took place in May 2016 over the international waters in the South China Sea. As the Americans specified, this incident took place in international airspace. According to the Pentagon, PRC fighter jets intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft insecurely. This statement by the Americans did not surprise anyone, since such a wording is standard in every such situation. An American officer also noted that the reconnaissance aircraft performed “routine routine patrols.”
Causes of Conflict with China
This incident was caused by rapidly growing tensions in this region of the South China Sea. All this is due to the increased activity of China in terms of the construction of artificial islands. At the same time, the states that are neighbors of the Celestial Empire, including the United States, are extremely concerned about the current situation, since they believe that China will in the future deploy a missile defense system on these man-made islands. Largely because of this, the United States, under the pretext of ensuring the appropriate level of security of international shipping, sent its navy to the troubled region, which quite logically caused a flurry of discontent from the PRC leadership.
Such close attention to the seemingly unremarkable region of the sea surface is explained by the fact that the South China Sea is an apple of discord between China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, the Philippines and Malaysia. And all because in this part of the world there are significant deposits of various natural resources: gas, oil, etc.