Production deliveries to US Air Force units of Boeing KC-135 tankers upgraded with global air traffic management (GATM) capability have begun.
The first GATM-equipped aircraft has been delivered to Fair- child AFB, Washington. The first 50 of 490 KC-135R/Ts to be updated will arrive by August 2004.
The KC-135 is the USAF's lead GATM platform, says programme manager Maj Brian Howell. "It's a race between the Lockheed C-5 [avionics modernisation programme] and the McDonnell Douglas KC-10 to be next," he says. GATM upgrades are required for the aircraft to operate in international civil airspace.
Rockwell Collins is avionics prime contractor for the C/KC-135 GATM upgrade, which builds on the Pacer Crag cockpit update completed on 565 aircraft. "Pacer Crag converted the aircraft from analogue to digital," says Howell. "GATM adds state-of-the art communications, navigation and surveillance and allows the KC-135 to fly in a much smaller bubble."
Source: Flight International
