The swansong for USAF's RC-26B Condor has occurred
On 28 December 2022, pilots assigned to the 115th Fighter Wing at Truax Field near Madison (WI) waved out, what could well be the last operational flight of a USAF RC-26B.
A day later, Wisconsin Air National Guard’s RC-26B, "504" (serial number 91-0504) was noted with a PAT callsign. PAT is used by the Department of the Army as a Priority Air Transport.
Already suggested a number of times in the past, but now unexpectedly the decommissioning of the RC-26B Multi Mission Surveillance Aircraft (MMSA) seems unavoidable. Assigned to the Air National Guard (ANG), USAF's RC-26B, unofficially named "Condor", is a modified Fairchild Metro 23 which has been tasked the previous years with counternarcotics, manned tactical Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), disaster response, and civil support missions.
With better (flying) capacities becoming available (MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and different satellites etc.), the obsolete RC-26B still flew with first generation electrooptical technology that was obsolete and unsupportable by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Although being obsolete, newer sensors provided improved video resolution, advanced low light and nighttime capability, geo-referenced coordinates, and advanced auto-tracking capabilities.
On 2 July 2019, Scramble Magazine wrote about the sustainment and engineering support for the remaining eleven RC-26Bs. Being probably no longer supportable, creating high costs and the intentions in the past to take the RC-26B out of service, the curtain now seems to have fallen for the Condor in USAF service.
RC-26B sightings have been rare the past few years. At this moment it is unknown to Scramble what will happen to the remaining aircraft.
A little while ago, around 21/22 December 2022, one RC-26B, with serial number 92-0373, was already delivered to the US Department of the Navy and has been seen flying at the beginning of 2023 near the Hawaiian Islands. As mentioned above, some could be possibly being transferred to other US agencies as well.
The Scramble database shows the following RC-26Bs:
Photos by USAF / RC-26B patch via https://flightlineinsignia.com/