RC-135 Rivet Joint for RAF

[larrythechief]

Pentagon Announces Rivet Joint Sale:
The Department of Defense last week informed Congress of its intent to convert three KC-135R tankers into RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence platforms for Britain under a proposed foreign military sale.
If all options are exercised, the pending deal, including associated equipment and services, could be worth as much as $1.068 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a release Oct. 2. "The United Kingdom requests this capability to provide for the defense of its deployed troops, regional security, and interoperability with the United States," DSCA said.
The Air Force has said it will make up for the three fewer tankers by temporarily allowing a higher utilization rate on its remaining KC-135Rs, assigning more crews, and adopting efficiencies in the KC-135R schoolhouse.

[Antilliaan]

A waiste of money if you ask me. Why buy almost fifty year old aircraft and update them with state of the art technology for $1bln?

As the Brits were planning to reduce their fleet of Sentries, the solution is obvious: remove the dish, upgrade them with the same RC-135 technology and you give the taxpayer value for money.

[Le Addeur noir]

The day the present British government do anything remotely competent and save their taxpayers money will be the day pigs fly all by themseves.

A far more logical thing to have done would have followed the following choices,

1 Acquire the three youngest and low-airframe hour Boeing 707 on the market and convert those.

2 Acquire surplus Boeing 757 or Airbus A321 airframes and convert them.

3 Acquire A340 airframes if a 4 engine airframe is a requirement and convert those.

The British Ministry of Defence has a long and proud history of making the poorest choises possible due to it's institutionised incompentance and corruption.

Some examples of bad British procurement over the last 30 years,

Chinook HC.3 GBP 462 million and still not in service 7 years after the initial delivery of the first airframes to Britain.

Nimrod AEW.3,another total waste of money due to the usual incompetance.

Nimrod MRA.4,another waste of time project running around 8 years behind schedule and way over budget.

Serviceman's lives have been lost due to poor and unairworthy aircraft being operated,but that is of no consequence to the British government,so long as jobs are created or retained in Labour-voting areas.