US reconnaissance aircraft: description and photo

The Armed Forces of the United States of America are considered to be one of the most powerful and strong army formations in the world. This statement is confirmed not only by the large number of soldiers and officers, but also by an impressive number of different techniques, among which the special role is taken by the USS RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. This aircraft has been on the armament for quite a long time, however, thanks to regularly carried out full-fledged modernization, and to this day is a sufficiently mobile and highly effective means of conducting reconnaissance operations. This aircraft will be discussed in this article.

Few facts

The US reconnaissance aircraft described is an air unit for the collection, thorough processing and subsequent transfer of data to the main point. At the heart of the combat unit lie the technical characteristics of the Boeing C-135 Stratolifter. Equipment for RC-135 is produced by various companies, among which are: L-3 Communications, E-Systems, General Dynamics.

Creation and modernization

This US 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 in the end, only four of them came off the assembly line. All of them were an improved version of the Boeing 739-700, because the same engines were used. At the same time, the filling system was completely dismantled, and cameras used for reconnaissance and photographing were installed in its place.

In turn, the RC-135B version was manufactured in the amount of ten cars. They were also based on the aerotanker. As the "all-seeing eyes" cameras and a special SLAR radar were used.

2005 became significant for RC-135 aircraft, as all of them without exception were significantly upgraded (engines, navigation equipment and other elements and systems were completely replaced).

Exploitation

The US reconnaissance aircraft considered by us originally belonged to the strategic command of the US Air Force. But, since 1992, it was subordinated to the combat command of the Air Force. All such cars have a permanent place of their basing - it is an air base "Offut".

The aircraft took an active part in military conflicts in various parts of our planet. Vessels were involved during the long war in Vietnam, during special operations "Eldorado Canyon", "Desert Shield", "Desert Storm", "Unconquered Freedom".

River Joint

This is the code name for the reconnaissance aircraft of the US Air Force RC-135V. This vessel initially had a rather marvelous appearance: the "inflated cheeks" of the RTR system with an extended nose, literally stuffed with equipment for reconnaissance communications AN / AMQ-15. Under the fuselage is located a number of antennas of a different caliber. In the presence were three whip antennas on the radar fairing adapter. Under the centroplane were installed petal antennas with oval plates in the number of four pieces. Behind the wing there was a place for a L-shaped antenna and a few more pins.

The appearance of the light RC-135W

In turn, the USS RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft differed from its RC-135V counterpart in that it did not have air intakes of heat exchangers on special nacelles located outside the engines. After a certain period of time, the "swollen cheeks" of the machines were slightly modified in order to improve the aerodynamic performance. Also, the front parts of the fairings were modified - they became somewhat longer, as a result of which the left fairing even slightly closed the entrance hatch and the lid of the latter eventually was refined.

In the 1990s, when the machines began operating in the conflict zone of the now former Yugoslavia, engineers installed special installations generating infrared jammers above the nozzles of all available engines. This was done in order to increase the degree of protection from anti-aircraft missiles equipped with a thermal homing head.

Command

The US reconnaissance aircraft RC-135 is operated by a fairly large team, which includes:

- Officers of the combat aviation command.

- Three EW operators (radar security): automatic reconnaissance, manual reconnaissance, senior shift. The task of this group is to track the locations of enemy aircraft, as well as anti-aircraft missile systems for their radar emissions, which, in turn, are intercepted by the AEELS system.

- 12-16 operators, members of the Air Intelligence Directorate. Their combat mission is to conduct radio surveillance of interceptions by fighters, as well as the connection of enemy air defense sectors with the help of a multichannel reconnaissance system in the range of ultrashort waves. That is, in fact, these servicemen are working to uncover the enemy's intentions.

- 7 technical operators controlling the detailed supervision of all radar emissions of objects located in the air, on land, in the sea. In parallel, these specialists specify the results of automatic search and classification using manual reconnaissance. After that, the military form service messages detailing the radioelectronic situation. All the information received is passed on to the analysts who are members of the aircraft working group.

The leading analyst-controller is directly involved in the formation of the radar situation map, in the subordination of which there are two more analysts: the first is engaged in ground targets, the second - with air targets. 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 - every ten seconds.

Separately, it is worth paying attention to two more operators who perform detection and registration of all non-standard or unidentified signals previously not used by the enemy. This is done for the purpose of timely and complete updating of the EW system. Also, operators monitor all attempts by the enemy to overcome the protection of the communications system of American aviation.

In addition to the above specialists who are constantly on their combat places, there is also an operator involved in the transfer of data to the E-3 AWACS aircraft and a pair of specialists performing flight maintenance.

Aircraft bottleneck

The US reconnaissance aircraft has a significant problem in the form of limited communication between it and the E-3 AWACS aircraft. Data transmission is carried out on a digital channel in TADIL-A format.

It is this channel that passes through itself all the symbol-graphic images of the air horizon, obtained by the radar method, formed by the operators of the vessel E-3. After processing, the information is returned back, but already in digital form. Moreover, it is supplemented by various special markers for recognizing and differentiating all air targets without exception.

Flight Performance

The US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft studied in detail as its main indicators has such indicators:

• The wing span is 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 weight of the empty aircraft is 46403 kg.
• The maximum takeoff weight is 124967 kg.
• The engine modification is Pratt Whitney TF33-P-9 turbojet engine.
• Traction - 4 x 80.07 kN.
• The maximum permissible speed of the flight is 991 km / h.
• The cruising speed is 901 km / h.
• The practical range of the flight is 9100 km.
• The range of the machine is 4308
• The maximum flight altitude is 12375 meters.

Incident over the Black Sea

January 25, 2016 US reconnaissance aircraft approached the border of the Russian Federation. As a result, the plane Su-27 was raised to the sky, which intercepted an American aircraft. According to the official representative of the European command of the US Navy, Capt. Daniel Hernandez, the interception of their reconnaissance aircraft was carried out extremely unsafe and unprofessional, which can not but disturb the American leadership, because this incident only intensifies the already tense situation. Also, an American officer claimed that the RC-135U Combat performed a scheduled flight in the international space over the Black Sea without violating anybody's national borders. Representatives of Russia, in turn, noticed that the American aircraft was in the sky with the transponder turned off.

According to information obtained from The Washington Free Beacon, the Russian fighter flew to an American aircraft six meters away, after which a certain amount of time flew side by side. Then the Russian pilot made a maneuver and sharply went to the side. As a result, the jet stream from the Su-27 was literally pushed by the US air reconnaissance aircraft, which caused him to lose control.

Duel over the Baltic

April 14, 2016, once again, the US reconnaissance aircraft flew to the borders of Russia. It is quite logical that this situation did not go unnoticed by the Air Force of the Russian Federation. The command of the Russians decided to stop the attempt to violate the state border, for which a jet fighter was launched into the air. As a result, the Su-27 intercepted a US reconnaissance aircraft. This maneuver, according to US military leaders, was again carried out in a daring manner and was dangerous for the crew of the American aircraft.

In addition, the US Army command expressed "the deepest concern", which was caused by "unprofessional and unsafe actions of the Russian pilot".

The Japanese conflict

On May 22, 2016, the Russian air defense system discovered an American reconnaissance aircraft RC-135 over the Sea of Japan. At that time, 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 of the region, which contributed to the emergence of the danger of collisions of civil aircraft. In addition, the American aircraft was located exactly at those echelons where regular civilian flights operated. Of course, the Su-27 intercepted the plane by a US scout.

To clarify what happened, a military attache attached to the US Embassy was summoned to the Russian Defense Ministry. Russian leaders drew the attention of their American counterpart to the prevention of such situations from now on and the adoption of appropriate measures to ensure the safety of aircraft in the sky.

Somewhat later it became known that the reconnaissance aircraft was visually detected by the crew of the Swiss long-range passenger aircraft. According to the pilots, they saw a heavy four-engine aircraft that did not provide any identification marks.

Confrontation with the Chinese

Once again, interception of US reconnaissance aircraft took place in May 2016 over the water area of international waters in the South China Sea. As clarified by the Americans, this incident took place in the international airspace. According to the Pentagon, the air force fighters of the PRC intercepted the US reconnaissance aircraft unsafe. Such an utterance of the Americans was no longer surprising, since such a formulation is standard in each such situation. Also, an American officer noted that the reconnaissance aircraft carried out "routine routine patrols".

Causes of conflict with China

This incident was caused by the rapidly growing tension in this region of the South China Sea. This is explained by 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, because they believe that China will in future deploy a missile defense system on these manmade islands. In many respects, it is because of this that the United States, on the pretext of ensuring the proper level of safety of international shipping, sent its navy to the problem region, which quite logically caused a flurry of discontent from the leadership of the PRC.

Such close attention to the seemingly unremarkable area 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.