BOEING RC-135W RIVET JOINT 100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE
PATROLLERS AND AIRLIFTERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 97R.1 would ultimately be superseded
by the US-designed and built
Boeing RC-135W.
AIRSEEKER
The plan to replace the Nimrod
R.1 was initially dubbed Project
Airseeker. It called for the
acquisition of three RC-135Ws
at an estimated cost of more than
one billion dollars and although
the project began in March 2011,
British pilots, navigators, electronic
warfare officers, intelligence
operators and airborne maintenance
technicians from 51 Squadron had
actually been training on the type at
Offutt AFB, Nebraska, USA as early
as January 2011.
The USAF operates a fleet of 17
RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft,
which are converted from KC-135
tankers or C-135 transport aircraft;
themselves variants of the Boeing
707 airliner.
The distinctive aircraft have
extended ‘thimble’ noses and bulky
cheek fairings to house electronic
surveillance equipment and their
crews’ job is to collect and relay
signals and communications,
listening to enemy transmissions
and radar emissions. The aircraft
are able to precisely locate, record
and analyse communications across
a vast area and can convey this
information through a myriad of
secure channels.
Each Rivet Joint has a standard
crew of 24: two pilots, one
navigator, four airborne systems
engineers, and 17 specialists tooperate its ‘listening’ gear. The RAF
refers to the Rivet Joint crews as
“multidiscipline Weapons System
Officer (WSO) and Weapons System
Operator (WSOp) specialists, whose
mission is to survey elements of
the electromagnetic spectrum in
order to derive intelligence for
commanders.”BRITISH ORDER
The sensitivity of these technologies
is such that very few countries
would even be considered as
potential Rivet Joint purchasers,
but the UK was approved to receive
three examples. This makes the RAF
the type’s sole export operator.
The machines were converted
from low-houred USAF KC-135R
airframes and L-3 Communications
in Greenville, Texas was chosen to
perform the work. This began in
March 2011 and the first example
(ZZ664) entered RAF service
on November 12, 2013 with 51
Squadron at RAF Waddington. The
second example (ZZ665) arrived in
August 2015 and the final airframe
(ZZ666) joined the squadron in
the summer of 2017. The RAF’s
Rivet Joint fleet was declared fully
operational in February 2018, and
it has been deployed extensively
for Operation Shader and on other
operational taskings.Above
Rivet Joint ZZ664
was the fi rst of
three Boeing KC-
135R Stratotankers
converted for the
RAF. It had previously
served the USAF
as 64-14833 and
fi rst fl ew in October- ANDY HAY/WWW.
FLYINGART.CO.UK
Left
The UK’s fi rst Rivet
Joint surveillance
aircraft is pictured
landing at RAF
Waddington in
November 2013.
Crews from 51
Squadron had
been training and
operating alongside
USAF colleagues
in preparation for
the UK aircraft
entering service,
and by the time this
aircraft arrived they
had fl own more
than 32,000 hours
and 1,800 sorties
under the aegis
of the USAF’s 55th
Reconnaissance Wing.Below left
RAF Rivet Joint RC-
135W ZZ664 taking off
from RAF Waddington
in Lincolnshire in
May 2014. The Rivet
Joint is a large,
all-weather electronic
surveillance aircraft
based on the C-135
airframe. ALL CROWN
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