Replacements are on the way for two decrepit 55th Wing jets that give the Air Force critical information about nuclear detonations in North Korea and elsewhere in the world.
The giant defense contractor L3Harris and the Air Force’s “Big Safari” acquisitions group are scheduled to start in May converting the first of three former Air National Guard fuel tankers into WC-135R radiation-detection aircraft. Work will start on the other two next year.
When they’re finished, all three aircraft will be assigned to the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base. The first is scheduled for delivery in 2022, said Maj. Malinda Singleton, an Air Force spokeswoman, with the other two following in 2023.
The conversions will cost $218 million. Congress appropriated the money in the 2019 and 2020 budget years. Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer and Reps. Don Bacon and Jeff Fortenberry worked to ensure funding survived the Washington budget wars.
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“The world needs this capability to sense nuclear tests,” Bacon told The World-Herald.

One of the KC-135 tankers slated for conversion as a WC-135R radiation-detection aircraft for the 55th Wing, on a 1990 stop at RAF Mildenhall, England, during Operation Desert Shield.
During the conversions, the long refueling booms will be removed from the former KC-135R tankers, Singleton said. The avionics and flight systems will be upgraded to match the RC-135 Rivet Joint and Cobra Ball aircraft already in the 55th Wing fleet at Offutt.
They will be equipped with sensing pods on each side of the fuselage, over the wing. Filters inside the pods capture tiny particles from the nuclear blast, giving analysts critical information about the composition of the bomb or other radiation source.
“There are a number of intelligence items you can only get from atmospheric particles,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. “If you can get the bomb components, you can get a wealth of data.”
The planes will also be equipped with compressors that channel air samples into tanks for further study. Each conversion is expected to take almost 24 months.
The aircraft are part of a mission called Constant Phoenix, which traces its roots back to the late 1940s.
In 1949, fallout from the first Soviet nuclear test was detected by an Air Force WB-29 weather plane, according to “The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker: More than a Tanker,” a 2017 history by Robert Hopkins III, a former 55th Wing recon pilot.
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During the Cold War, a series of aircraft types flew the missions frequently over the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. In the mid-1960s, the Air Force converted 10 former C-135B transport planes for Constant Phoenix, which came to be called the “nuke sniffing” mission. The prefix “W” was added to their name because they also collected weather data.
Hopkins said the newly named WC-135s could fly much longer and much higher than previous types.
“It doesn’t have to fly into hostile territory,” Hopkins said. “They can tell you everything you need to know about the bomb, and the level of sophistication.”
For decades, the Offutt-based Strategic Air Command used them to monitor compliance with the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. One was used to monitor fallout from the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, though it later had to be scrapped in part because of residual radiation.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak moved quickly to retire them.
“McPeak was determined to get rid of everything SAC,” Hopkins said. “They started just dragging them off to the boneyard.”

Flight training and other military missions continue at Offutt Air Force Base, but military travel and large gatherings on base are being curtailed. In this photo, one of the 55th Wing’s WC-135 radiation detection aircraft is shown taking off Monday from Offutt.
But the rise of China as a nuclear power, and the 1998 nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan, made it clear there was still a need for “nuke sniffers.” That was reinforced by North Korea’s unsettling development of nuclear weapons.
Today, the 55th Wing’s 45th Reconnaissance Squadron operates two WC-135s, which were built in 1961 and 1962. They are among the oldest jets in the Air Force, and have not received the same upgraded engines and flight systems as the 55th Wing’s RC-135s.
The 55th Wing allows only very experienced pilots to fly the current WC-135s because of their old-fashioned flight controls and engines, a noisier, smokier, gas-guzzling motor last produced in 1985. They break down frequently.
In 2017, an engine on one of the planes caught fire on a flight from the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and Okinawa, Japan. After a frightening descent, the plane made a safe emergency landing at a civilian airport in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. It was sidelined there for repairs for more than a week.
“The current airplanes are old. They are wearing out,” Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2018. “Our mission-capable rates and, more importantly, our aircraft availability rates to be able to do this mission are much lower than not only the secretary of defense but the combatant commanders require.”
Hopkins said the three KC-135s selected for conversion rolled off the Boeing assembly line in August and September 1964 — which means they are among the youngest of that type. Each has about 25,000 to 27,500 flight hours, Singleton said, compared with between 29,500 and 36,000 for the two current Constant Phoenix jets.
Though only two to three years newer than the aircraft they replace, all three were upgraded with new, quieter, turbofan engines in the early 1990s, and are equipped with newer avionics and flight controls. That means most any 55th Wing pilot will be able to fly them.
All have served most recently as National Guard tankers, which Hopkins said means they are in better shape than the 55th Wing workhorses. He said Guard tankers typically rack up fewer flight hours and are maintained by National Guard mechanics who care for the same aircraft for years, unlike in the active-duty Air Force.
“Offutt flies their jets hard,” he said. “Airplanes that come out of the Guard and Reserve have been pampered.”
Hopkins has criticized the Air Force for failing to fund new reconnaissance aircraft, but he does believe refitting the aged tankers is the right move now.
Flight training and parts replacement will be simplified because the cockpit, engines and airframes will be the same as all but two other 55th Wing jets.
“It’s a prudent choice,” Hopkins said.
Bacon said he is glad to see the planes coming into the pipeline.
“The world situation tells us we need these,” Bacon said. “We might as well go out and get it done.”
Offutt Air Force Base through the years
Photos: Offutt Air Force Base through the years


The area now known as Offutt Air Force Base was first commissioned as Fort Crook, an Army post to house cavalry soldiers and their horses. This photo, circa 1905, shows mounted officers and infantry troops assembling on the parade ground. The officers' quarters in the background still stand today, but the closing of Offutt's stables in 2010 ended the base's equine tradition.

Painter Frank Anania places the final bolt in the SAC emblem, newly placed on the command building at Strategic Air Command headquarters. After the command was created in 1946, SAC headquarters were moved from Andrews Field, Maryland, to Offutt Air Force Base. SAC's high-flying reconnaissance planes and bombers would go on to play a global role from the onset of the Cold War through the last bomb of the Persian Gulf War.

The Strategic Air Command "nerve center" gets a new headquarters building at Offutt Air Force Base.

Even since the late 1950s, Strategic Air Command has been holding open house events at Offutt Air Force Base to display and demonstrate aircraft for civilian visitors. Each year, the open house and air show at Offutt features aerial acts or reenactments, static displays, and booths showcasing military history and capabilities.Â

The first SAC museum consisted of a section of abandoned runway near the north edge of Offutt Air Force Base outside of Bellevue. However, the outdoor display left the aircraft vulnerable to the elements.

A Royal Air Force bomber crashes at Offutt Air Force Base. Beginning in the late 1950s, the RAF maintained small detachment and service facility for Vulcan bomber planes at Offutt, often participating in defense exercises and demonstrations at the base until their retirement and deactivation in 1982. This plane crashed at take-off at the northwest end of the main runway and then slid across Highway 73-75. All seven passengers survived.Â

Just weeks after the Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy visits Offutt Air Force Base, accompanied by Gen. Thomas Power of Strategic Air Command, right.

Actor Rock Hudson receives a B-52 bomber briefing during a visit to Omaha and Offutt Air Force Base. He began filming "A Gathering of Eagles" in May of that year.

An early photograph of the Ehrling Bergquist military medical clinic in Bellevue. The clinic has served Offutt Air Force Base since 1966 and was remodeled in 2013, including a grand staircase, larger physical therapy and mental health areas, and a more private mammography waiting area.Â

The world's largest aircraft at that time, the C5 Galaxy was displayed as part of the open house for civilian visitors at Offutt Air Force Base.

A conference room in the SAC underground command post at Offutt Air Force Base. Strategic Air Command would be formally disestablished in 1992, but Offutt would remain the headquarters for the new United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).

The Strategic Air Command Memorial Chapel holds a Sunday morning service as a reminder of those who have given their service and those who have died during the Command's 46-year history. Founded in in 1946, the command was dissolved in a ceremony at Offutt Air Force Base.

OPPD worker Craig Azure of Ashland holds a power line up across Platteview Road near Highway 50 so that an Albatross airplane can fit under it. After SAC was dissolved, the museum moved into a new indoor facility in 1998. Airplanes were moved from their old location at Offutt Air Force Base to their new and current home near Mahoney State Park off I-80.Â

The parade grounds gazebo at Offutt is dedicated in honor of Airman 1st Class Warren T. Willis, who was killed in an aircraft accident the previous December.Â

President Bill Clinton speaks at a rally at Offutt Air Force Base.

More than 300 anti-nuclear protesters gather outside Kinney Gate at Offutt Air Force Base. The rally was part of a weekend of protest against nuclear weapons, and was organized in response to an extensive nuclear arsenal review being held at the base.

Vice President Dick Cheney greets service men and women following a speech at Offutt Air Force Base's Minuteman missile in Bellevue.

Dignitaries clap along to an armed forces medley as ground is broken for the new U. S. Strategic Command Headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base. From left: Neb. Rep. Adrian Smith, Rep. Lee Terry, Neb. Governor Dave Heineman, General C. Robert Kehler, Commander USStratcom, Sen. Ben Nelson, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, and Mayor of Bellevue, Rita Sanders.

Chris Shotton created this thank you message to the airmen and troops flying in and out of Offutt Air Force Base. Employees of area Walmart stores have been writing giant messages in fields near Highway 370 for years.

Senior Airman Kevin Chapman works the desk at the new Public Health Clinic located in the Ehrling Bergquist military medical clinic.

The new MERLIN SS200m Aircraft Birdstrike Avoidance Radar System, with the control tower in the background, photographed at Offutt Air Force Base. The system was moved here from Afghanistan in order to help detect large flocks and prevent damages to aircraft from bids, which cost the Air Force millions of dollars each year.

An aerial photo from late February of the construction site for StratCom's new $1.2 billion headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base. Despite numerous delays and setbacks, the building would be completed in 2018, six years after construction began. StratCom would then spend the next year outfitting the structure with more than $600 million worth of high-tech communications and security gear.

President Barack Obama arrives in Omaha after landing at Offutt Air Force Base. While in Omaha, Obama met with the family of Kerrie Orozco, visited a local teacher, and addressed a crowd of about 8,000 at Baxter Arena.

This year, U.S. Strategic Command unveiled a new Command and Control Facility located at Offutt Air Force Base. The "battle deck," shown here, features computer workstations, soundproofing, and the ability to connect instantly to the White House and Pentagon.

Luke Thomas and Air Force Tech Sgt. Vanessa Vidaurre at a flooded portion of Offutt Air Force Base. In March, historic flooding included breaches of two levees protecting the base from the Missouri River.
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