Stationed at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, the three airplanes were filled with linguists who monitored Soviet military radio frequencies and a pair of specialists who tracked radars and other electronic equipment. The RC-135 entered operational service with Strategic Air Command in 1962 in a program known as Office Boy. The Air Force faces a compelling need to replace the elderly RC-135 fleet, which is slated to remain in service through 2040–2050 after some 80–90 years of operational flying. A recent Air Force announcement puts a replacement of the 60-year-old RC-135 reconnaissance fleet in similar jeopardy, an ill-considered choice that focuses exclusively on combat survival at the expense of essential peacetime operations. The Air Force already canceled recapitalization of the E-8C Joint STARS in favor of the Advanced Battle Management System - an integrated network of sensors across multiple platforms - with the rationale that any new non-stealthy airplanes would be easy prey for advanced fighters and anti-aircraft weapons. As Air Force planners see it, advances by “near-peer” adversaries such as Russia and China put these valuable but vulnerable assets at considerable risk. Air Force’s legacy big-wing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft with new jets are in doubt. In August of last year, Russia intercepted a US RC-135 surveillance aircraft over the Black Sea, and in November, the Russian Defense Ministry reported intercepting a UK RC-135 near Crimea.After more than 25 years of successful but one-sided combat operations, plans to replace the U.S. The Russian Defense Ministry asserts that the drone crashed due to sharp manoeuvring, whereas the United States claims that one Russian aircraft struck the drone’s propeller. In March, a US MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed in the Black Sea after being intercepted by Russian fighter fighters. The flight range is 3,250 kilometres, and the utmost payload is 6 tonnes. It is armed with a GSH-301 automatic single-barrel gun and can transport up to six R-27 or four R-73 air-to-air missiles. The Su-27 fighter is designed for long- and short-range air combat, interception and destruction of enemy aircraft, and support for fleet actions 300–400 kilometres from the coast. In addition, a map of the Black Sea with a line depicted approximately 80.4 kilometres from the coast and labelled SECDEF Directed Standoff recently leaked to the network, indicating that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin most likely ordered American pilots to keep planes away from the peninsula. The incident could have “directly” drawn the United States and its NATO allies into the Ukraine conflict, according to The Washington Post. The Russian missile was fired at the spy plane, but British Defense Minister Ben Owless explained that this was due to a technical malfunction. The incident reportedly occurred on September 29 of last year, off the coast of Crimea, the newspaper reported, adding that a classified document describes the incident as a “near-shoot down of UK RJ.” Internet-leaked Pentagon and US intelligence data indicate that a Russian Su-27 fighter discharged a missile close to a British RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and nearly shot it down, according to The Washington Post.
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