![]() Three of the RJs were collecting intelligence on the Russians-one near Russia’s Baltic exclave Kaliningrad. ![]() A fourth was over the Korean demilitarized zone. Another was looping around the South China Sea in order to surveil Chinese forces. One RC-135V/W was off the California coast, presumably for training. The RJs usually fly with their transponders on, meaning anyone with access to flight-tracking software can observe their sorties in real time. Which is why it’s so remarkable that, on Monday and Tuesday, seven RJs were in the air on the same day. The Boeing 707-based surveillance planes are old and complex they don’t fly every day. Which is not to say all 10 can fly every day. That is to say, the Air Force might be able to muster 10 RJs at a time. A quarter of these are down for routine maintenance, if readiness data from 2019 still applies. Maybe a dozen RC-135V/Ws are available for operations. The 55th Wing at Offutt has 17 RJs, but on any given day several of the 1960s-vintage airframes are in Texas for updates. The RJs take turns deploying to the United Kingdom, Crete, Qatar and Japan, among other countries, for surveillance flights near Russia, Iran, China and North Korea. The Air Force operates eight RC-135V Rivet Joints and nine virtually-identical RC-135W from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. There’s no way the Army’s two Artemises can keep up with the USAF’s RJ fleet, however. ![]() The RJ characterizes their communications. Pair an RC-135V/W with an Artemis and you might get a pretty comprehensive picture of an opposing army. The prototype Artemis twin-jet carries an underslung radar that can spot vehicles on the ground. Army respectively sortied RC-135V/Ws and Artemis ground-surveillance aircraft. “We are very proud that our units continue to support this USAF mission.In early December the French air force sent Mirage fighters clutching electronic-intelligence pods across the Black Sea around Crimea. “We originally modified one of our standard COTS power supplies to create the unique Model DMCA4000 which meets the special requirements of The US Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint program,” said Ron Storm, president of both Orbit Power Group and Behlman. For airborne applications, they are powered from three-phase AC aircraft power and provide outputs at +3.3 VDC, +5 VDC, +12 VDC, -12 VDC and -28 VDC.īehlman DMCA4000 (P/N 94057) power supplies meet the input power requirements of MIL-STD-704, and at 4.5” H x 16” W x 21.5” D and weighing only 33.5 lbs, these rack-mounted power supplies readily accommodate the tight quarters typically found in military applications. These 4,000-watt switch-mode units are engineered and manufactured for high-end industrial and military airborne, shipboard and land-mobile applications. ![]() This requirement has been consistently provided by Behlman’s DMCA4000 COTS power supplies. USAF RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft are equipped with an extensive array of sophisticated electronic equipment that require rugged, high-performance, extremely reliable power supplies. The special performance features of this unit have made it the preferred choice of the USAF for over six years, for use aboard the RC-135 Rivet Joint all-weather surveillance aircraft. has received another follow-on order for its COTS DMCA4000 power supply. ![]()
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