RC-135V/W Rivet Joint

The RC-135V/W Rivet Joint is the U.S. Air Force's primary manned signals intelligence platform, based on the Boeing C-135 airframe and extensively modified by L3Harris (formerly L-3 Communications) in Greenville, Texas. Rivet Joint aircraft intercept, geolocate, and analyze adversary electronic emissions across strategic, operational, and tactical frequencies.

The fleet is frequently deployed to Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. Continuous Baseline upgrades keep the mission systems current, with Baseline 12 and beyond introducing open-architecture processing to absorb new sensors and machine-learning-enabled analytics. The Rivet Joint fleet will remain the backbone of manned SIGINT well into the 2030s.

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