Re: NKC-135

Message posted by Richard on March 23, 2002 at 1:48:47 PST:

Hi Hal,

There a few planes in the US inventory which would be up to spec on operating in this mission profile. The KC-10 Extender is one, it is fast, very long ranged and has enough space to pack it with jammers and electronic gear. And it can loiter.

Its about time the US of A started thinking of replacing the old KC-135 variants, some are of 50's vintage like the B-52s and will 'fail' sooner or later, the NKC-135s are some of the oldest flying.
Even NASA came to the fact that their NB-52 was just too old to fly anymore and so a B-52H replaced it.

As for one particular C-135, TROUT 99 (Speckled Trout) as well as transporting DV's around the globe also apparently tests and evaluates future equipment to be installed in current and future aircraft such as avionics, electronics, jammers and so on. I heard a few years ago that this Trout did some testing on electronic countermeasures, but i could be wrong.
Trout 99 passes through the UK weekly with DV's on board. It is based at Edwards AFB with the test wing.

Rich

In Reply to: Re: NKC-135 posted by Hal on March 22, 2002 at 21:47:27 PST:

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