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Crown Copyright. Pity they are not in this colour scheme anymore...
http://key.aero/view_news.asp?ID=2829&t ... n=military
Tristar upgrade underway
The RAF's fleet of Tristars is being upgraded.
Gary Parsons - 3-Dec-2010
December 3: Cambridgeshire-based Marshall Aerospace says it has completed development and clearance flying of the Minimum Military Requirements (MMR) Avionics Upgrade for the Royal Air Force’s fleet of Tristar transport aircraft.
The Trial Installation aircraft has been handed back to the Ministry of Defence to undergo scheduled maintenance before re-entering operational service in the spring of next year.
The Tristar is mainstay of the UK’s air bridge to Afghanistan, transporting troops and their equipment to and from operational duties.
The avionics upgrade, comprising new navigational displays, will “ensure that the aircraft remain protected from obsolescence problems increasingly affecting their systems”, says Marshall Aerospace, and comply with current civil airspace regulations.
The RAF’s fleet of nine aircraft, all operated by 216 Squadron from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire,
were due to be replaced by the KC-30A tanker/transport by 2016, although this has been brought forward after the Strategic Defence and Security Review to 2014.