The Air Force recently installed and flight-tested a second-generation Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminal (FAB-T) onboard a test version of an RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft.
“This first series of integration and flight tests on the RC-135 aircraft demonstrates that the second-generation terminal is able to pass low-data-rate communications between airborne and ground platforms in flight,” said Maj. Jeff Miller, FAB-T program office test team lead.
During the test, a FAB-T onboard an RC-135 connected with a Milstar satellite. The Air Force test team then communicated with test locations on the ground via the Milstar and tested voice, data and text sharing capabilities.
“This is a significant accomplishment as the RC-135 was the first FAB-T user platform to be integrated with an actual airborne terminal,” said John Lunardi, Boeing FAB-T vice president and program director. “Integrating the system with the platform user and then successfully exercising terminal communications over-the-air in-flight demonstrates the continuing maturity of the FAB-T system.”