Train Talon Defend, a part of the broader Talisman Sabre, noticed Offutt AFB’s RC-135 Rivet Joint participating within the train in Australia for the primary time.
Two developments final week marked the growing army cooperation between the USA and Australia within the airborne electromagnetic spectrum. Offutt AFB, Nebraska, introduced wrapping up Train Talon Defend, a part of the larger Talisman Sabre 2025, at RAAF Base Edinburgh on Aug. 6, 2025, which noticed the RC-135V Rivet Joint digital surveillance plane flying with Australian property.
Offutt AFB mentioned on its Instagram web page this was the primary time the plane was launched in help of the Talisman Sabre collection of workout routines. The bottom additionally referenced the broader British, U.S. and Australian efforts to combine their electromagnetic help operations.
Roughly 200 USAF Airmen and over 55 tons of cargo from the 319th Reconnaissance Wing (Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota) and 552nd Air Management Wing (Tinker AFB, Oklahoma), arrived at RAAF Base Edinburgh on Jul. 2, 2025, in help of the Offutt detachment. At the least one RC-135V was deployed.
#TalismanSabre25 is in full swing throughout an enormous coaching floor 🇦🇺
With greater than 35,000 army personnel from 19 nations concerned, it’s all about teamwork & the RAF stand beside our Indo Pac allies able to #FlyandFight. #StrongerTogether @AusAirForce @usairforce pic.twitter.com/dzccAa6XO3
— Royal Air Drive (@RoyalAirForce) July 17, 2025
Lately, the U.S. DSCA (Protection Safety Cooperation Company) additionally permitted a Baseline 2 improve for the RAAF’s MC-55A Peregrine ISREW (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Digital Warfare) platform. 4 Peregrine plane, primarily based on the Gulfstream 550 plane, are being acquired below the Challenge Air 555 Part 1, and a minimum of two have been already outfitted by L3Harris.
RC-135 at Talon Defend in Australia
One picture, amongst others, shared by the RAF on Jul. 17 confirmed the RC-135 flying with an RAAF (Royal Australian Air Drive) F-35A in a publish concerning the broader Talisman Sabre. The opposite photos confirmed an RAF Voyager KC3 aerial refueler, U.S. Marine Corps and British F-35Bs, in addition to Australian E/A-18G Growler, F/A-18E/F Tremendous Hornets and an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail AEW&C plane flying collectively.
The Royal Air Drive additionally operates the Rivet Joint within the RC-135W variant, and UK MoD revealed in December 2021 that RAF and RAAF crews took half in a mission inside a RC-135V of the fifty fifth Wing at Offutt AFB throughout train Resolute Hunter 22-1. Australian Defence Journal quoted the UK MoD, who talked about “this primary ever mission additionally highlights the increasing manned ISR partnership between the three allied nations because the three companies develop widespread insights and operational techniques.”
A press release from Defence Australia to ADM mentioned RAAF aviators gained “invaluable publicity to coalition ISR Digital Warfare (ISREW) capabilities.” The assertion then went on to say the P-8A Poseidon, MC-55A and MQ-4C Triton plane as part of that effort in Australia.
The RC-135V/W plane focuses on sign intelligence (SIGINT) and digital intelligence (ELINT), by gathering adversary radar and communications emissions, and disseminates them to pleasant forces, enhancing situational consciousness.
Throughout Talon Defend, the RC-135V Rivet Joint, assigned to the thirty eighth Reconnaissance Squadron, carried out six missions, in keeping with Offutt AFB. In one other video displaying the RC-135V taxing for take-off, Offutt AFB mentioned that the fifty fifth Wing focuses on “contested, degraded, and denied battlespace.” The bottom additionally shared pictures of the Rivet Joint flying with the RAAF F/A-18F Tremendous Hornets and F-35A, whereas being refueled by an American KC-135 Stratotanker.
The USAF contingent demonstrated the Deployable Fight Wing and AFFORGEN fashions throughout the train. AFFORGEN is a “deliberate pressure presentation technique designed to make sure mission-ready airmen are skilled, geared up and deployable on demand.” DCW goals to “manage, generate, deploy, and function forces below situations of useful resource constraint and degraded communications.”
The aim was to function smaller, agile groups from distributed places. “The groups will sharpen distributed floor and airborne command and management, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance property, to make sure the mission can proceed in contested environments,” mentioned a Jul. 1, 2025, press launch from the fifty fifth Wing.
The USAF additionally used RAAF gear like “flightline” and “communication” and “cargo dealing with,” decreasing their very own footprint. As an example, pictures from Jul. 9, 2025 confirmed USAF’s 319th Logistics Readiness Squadron refueling an RC-135W with a hose from a refueling truck utilized by the RAAF.
Logistics and planning
The deployment to Australia was a large planning, logistical and coordination enterprise 9 months within the making, requiring synchronized army, diplomatic and industrial efforts. The 200 personnel included a number of specialties similar to plane upkeep, operations, intelligence, communications, safety forces, logistics and personnel help.
Two USAF C-17 Globemaster IIIs hauled 67 items of help gear and 248 Mobility Readiness Spare Packages (MRSP), weighing over 55 tons and price $12.9 million, to help the RC-135 Rivet Joint flights in Australia. These comprised plane help instruments, communications infrastructure and sustainment provides, tracked by means of tedious load plans, cargo and customs documentation.
This required inter-theater and inter-command coordination, primarily between the U.S. Transportation Command, Pacific Air Forces, whereas liaising with RAAF officers for native boarding of American personnel, and in-country motion of USAF gear. One other achievement was offering safe, cyber protected communications, voice and knowledge connectivity to the RC-135V and USAF personnel within the coalition atmosphere, in keeping with fifty fifth Wing’s Communications Group deputy chief Lt. Col. Joseph Corridor.
Within the Jul. 15 launch, the fifty fifth Wing mentioned that Grand Forks AFB’s 319th RW and Tinker AFB’s 552nd ACW delivered “superior intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, airborne command and management, or C2, and electromagnetic warfare capabilities.”
MC-55A Peregrine improve
The $404 million Baseline 2 improve for the RAAF’s MC-55A contains plane gear and companies to help the Australian MC-55A plane fleet with main and minor modifications, spare elements, US authorities and contractor engineering, logistics help companies, consumables and equipment in addition to restore and return help, in keeping with the DSCA discover.
We reported in Mar. 2025 about L3Harris officers saying on the Avalon Australian Worldwide Airshow that they anticipate deliveries to start in late 2025, with this system already having overshot its timeline. A part of the reason being the regulatory certification necessities stemming from the modifications to the G550 airframe for ISREW position.
The U.S. State Division has permitted the attainable sale of “MC-55A Baseline 2 Improve and associated gear”.
The primary of 4 MC-55A Peregrine ISR/EW jets is deliberate to be delivered to Australia later this yr. This attainable $404 million sale is probably going for a deliberate improve. pic.twitter.com/RqnvfTEwCZ
— Bizjets of Conflict (@bizjetsofwar) August 7, 2025
The RAAF plans to mix electromagnetic sensing and strike platforms just like the Peregrine, F-35A Lightning II, E-7A Wedgetail, the E/A-18G Growler, the MQ-28A Ghost Bat and MQ-4C Triton. The RAAF in May additionally obtained its third and fourth Tritons at RAAF Base Tindal within the Northern Territory.
