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RAF receives second Rivet Joint early

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posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 09:46 AM
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The RAF has received its second RC-135W Rivet Joint seven months early. It was accepted at RAF Mildenhall, as Waddington is currently closed for resurfacing. Over 60 changes were made over the first aircraft from mission systems, to engines. The first aircraft ZZ664 will eventually undergo upgrades to match ZZ665s changes. The third aircraft will be delivered in 2017. All three were former KC-135s that were upgraded by L-3 Communications in Texas.


The UK has received its second of an eventual three Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft, and detailed a package of enhancements that have been introduced with the refurbished jet since its lead example entered Royal Air Force use more than a year ago.

Aircraft ZZ665 was accepted at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, as the UK’s Waddington base is currently closed for runway resurfacing.

www.flightglobal.com...



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 10:04 AM
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a reply to: Zaphod58

Is that just a coincidence, or perfect timing for the arrival of F-35's



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 12:48 PM
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When i saw the title i was thinking of some sort of new thing to stop bits of the plane falling off thats better than a normal rivet

Must mean the f-35 is finally getting close to delivery as theres no point having them if they run out of fuel before they can do anything and it'll mean we'll be able to share fuel deliveries as i'd of imagine both the uk/us tankers will have the same hose/delivery system meaning they can slurp on whatever teats available.



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 03:45 PM
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originally posted by: nelloh62
a reply to: Zaphod58

Is that just a coincidence, or perfect timing for the arrival of F-35's


I thought they already have at least one, between now and 2019 that is



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 04:03 PM
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a reply to: Maxatoria

Rivet Joint won't have anything to do with refueling. Those are the Airbus tankers that are flying. These started life as KC-135s, and were almost completely rebuilt into signals intelligence aircraft. The refueling systems were ripped out.

They picked KC-135s to start with because there were so many in the boneyard to choose from. They picked out three with good maintenance histories and converted them to the RC standard.

As for the tankers though , yes they do use the same drogue. It's NATO standard for everything that uses them so they can use any tanker that has one.



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 04:04 PM
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a reply to: smurfy

F-35s? They have three that are part of the IOT&E fleet, with a fourth delivering next year.



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 05:20 PM
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originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: smurfy

F-35s? They have three that are part of the IOT&E fleet, with a fourth delivering next year.


Okay then so they have four, all probably different...I'm shaking in my boots, a bit like Phillip Hammond who balanced the UK's military books in that long forgotten era of 2012, and also kept a slush fund of £8billion for the military et al which has probably disappeared down the F35's-a plane that does not work-plughole alone by now. He might get a few bob back from the sale of most of the Harrier types to the USMC though...that'll pay for drinkies.



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 05:23 PM
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a reply to: smurfy

The F-35 works fine. Not all the reports of it's failures are accurate. The RAF/RN aren't declaring IOC until 2017 at the earliest, so why would they need a large number of them already?



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 06:52 PM
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originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: smurfy

The F-35 works fine. Not all the reports of it's failures are accurate. The RAF/RN aren't declaring IOC until 2017 at the earliest, so why would they need a large number of them already?


If the USMC are not evaluating a completed aircraft for the purpose of IOC, why should the RAF. Besides, what they are using is still Glitchy and still being patched. Perhaps that's the point, plug and play needs to work in it's basis, if that's not right to begin with, then anything new may not work, it's a system from the ground up, and that includes all the ancillary stuff, and the RN have likely extra need for their operations, all costing even more £Billions. Who needs all this grandioseness with it's exponential costs? Phillip Hammond, is no longer in the chair, but as sure as hell he has cost the UK a heap of money that we don't have.



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 07:01 PM
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a reply to: smurfy

And have you looked at the current capabilities of everyone? Even if they had kept the Harriers they'd be screwed anyway.

Fourth generation fighters aren't going to cut it if a fight against even remotely current defenses starts without some kind of LO platform involved to help degrade the defenses.

You want a mature platform. It doesn't work that way. If you wait and get a mature, completed platform then there will always be upgrades to keep it ahead of the defenses. The only way to not spend money is to eliminate the military completely.
edit on 9/4/2015 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 07:32 PM
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originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: smurfy


You want a mature platform. It doesn't work tasty way. If you wait and get a mature, completed platform then there will always be upgrades to keep it ahead of the defenses.

I think that's what i just said.



posted on Sep, 4 2015 @ 08:10 PM
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a reply to: smurfy

And you either buy the F-35, or develop an all new platform. If you do that you bear the brunt of the costs and the challenges of R&D. And if you buy the F-35 that means being part of the program from the ground up and dealing with the problems and fixes.



posted on Sep, 6 2015 @ 10:01 AM
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originally posted by: Zaphod58
The first aircraft ZZ664 will eventually undergo upgrades to match ZZ665s changes.


I see a problem here.When the RAF get to the serial number ZZ999,where do they go after that?

edit on 6-9-2015 by Imagewerx because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 6 2015 @ 11:18 AM
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originally posted by: Imagewerx

originally posted by: Zaphod58
The first aircraft ZZ664 will eventually undergo upgrades to match ZZ665s changes.


I see a problem here.When the RAF get to the serial number ZZ999,where do they go after that?


It will be a long time before ZZ numbers are used up and they can also go back and use many of the old blocks that were not allocated. Everything covered in following threads.

forum.keypublishing.com...

www.pprune.org...



posted on Sep, 6 2015 @ 03:05 PM
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a reply to: tommyjo

Or maybe everyone in the world will realise they're no different to everyone else in the world and have a great big world wide group hug.All the air forces and other military units will be disbanded before the serial numbers run out-problem solved!!!!



posted on Sep, 9 2015 @ 09:20 AM
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originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: smurfy

The F-35 works fine. Not all the reports of it's failures are accurate. The RAF/RN aren't declaring IOC until 2017 at the earliest, so why would they need a large number of them already?


I'll second that... Just back from a few days at Salmesbury, Warton and the AWC at Waddo. The general feeling is that Lightning II is now on track and i'm not hearing anyone within industry saying it's anything other than a very capable platform. Yes the program has had it's problems but it will be worth it in the end, just wait and see


@Smurfy - As for PH wasting money, we're spending a vast amount of that money in the UK, supporting the UK defence industry and employing thousands of people in assembly, delivery and support of F-35. I'd rather see money be spent on a high technology defence platform like F35 than the bloody HS2 rail link!

My thoughts on Rivet Joint are nowhere near as positive though. We learned a valuable lesson with the Nimrod crash, it seems like we're forgetting it all again and the MAA are being 'urged' to cut corners! As above, I'd rather see us develop our own large ISR capability based on a current airframe than spending £50 Billion on a railway.

Cheers
Robbie




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