Shannon received a visit from a US Army De Havilland Canada RC-7B on January 5. The aircraft is registered N177RA, msn 85 and is based at Ft. Bliss in Texas.
Originally delivered to Ransome Airlines in July 1982 the aircraft subsequently passed through the hands of Pan Am Express, TWA and leasing company AGES before being acquired by California Microwave Inc. It has worn the registration N177RA throughout.
The RC-7 ARL (Aircraft Reconnaissance Low) conversion of the DHC-7 came about through the US Army Southern Command's need for a low profile intelligence gathering platform to combat narcotics smuggling from Central America in the late 1980's. The contract to convert standard DHC-7 aircraft went to California Microwave Inc, now a part of Northrop Grumman. The result was the RC-7 ARL which was equipped for SIGINT and IMINT, Signal and Image Intelligence respectively. The first aircraft were used in Bosnia as part of the UN peacekeeping initiative in the Balkans, for humanitarian relief operations and also in the counter narcotics role.
In 1993, following the success of the RC-7 ARL, the Army went on to develop the RC-7B ARLM, 'M' for 'Multifunction'. The 'M' version is equipped with Day/Night imaging, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Moving Target Indicator, Comlink for video / data download to ground operations and communications intercept with direction finding. The RC-7B can rebroadcast false messages using the voice of the original broadcaster.
Depending on configuration, the RC-7B ARLM has an endurance of between 7.5 and 10 hours at altitudes up to 25,000 ft.
N177RA carries small 'U.S Army' titles under the cockpit window and is seen on final approach to R24 in Shannon as 'ALOMA 91' in the picture above.
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