The KC-135’s principal mission is air refueling support to U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, as well as aircraft of allied nations. Through the years, it has also been modified to perform other missions, ranging from flying command post missions to reconnaissance.
The KC-135 Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) program exemplifies Rockwell Collins successful relationship with the U.S. Air Force and is one of Air Mobility Command’s most successful acquisition programs. As the prime contractor and flight deck systems integrator, we are providing technology through an open systems approach that upgrades the aircraft for changing Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) requirements, enabling worldwide flight in both commercial and military airspace. By leveraging technology from our commercial business, we use the latest commercial off-the-shelf solutions, thereby providing the KC-135 with cost-effective communication and navigation equipment required to operate in today’s commercial airspace throughout the world.
As part of this program, we supply a variety of products, including the GNLU-955 multi-mode receiver, VDL-2000 very high frequency data link capability, SAT-2000 SATCOM radio, CMU-900 communications management unit and the IPC-7000 integrated processing center. Our open systems architecture effectively integrates all of these products and also allows for easy upgrades to both hardware and software components, enabling future enhancements to platform capabilities.
In September 2009, the U.S. Air Force selected Rockwell Collins for the Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase of the KC-135 Block 45 upgrade program. Under the contract, Rockwell Collins will further modernize the KC-135 refueling tankers flight deck with the latest generation autopilot, flight director, radar altimeter and electronic engine instrument display. Two prototype aircraft will be modified during the EMD phase to establish the production baseline for 417 additional KC-135 aircraft expected to receive the Block 45 upgrade.
In July 2011, we celebrated the delivery of the 419th—and final—KC-135 GATM-equipped aircraft. The GATM-equipped KC-135 fleet continues to be one of the most capable and most integrated military tanker/transport platforms fielded today, capable of transitioning between commercial and restricted military airspace seamlessly … anytime, anywhere.