The Boeing RC-135X COBRA EYE is a modfied RC-135S for TELINT missions, carrying a cryogenically cooled infrared sensor subsystem for the Army Space and Strategic Defense Command. Formerlly known as the Optical Aircraft Measurement Program (OAMP), this Ball Aerospace effort was a one-of-a-kind infrared sensor technological development program. The OAMP sensor detects an object's spectra to determine the four dimensions: spatial; temporal; radiometric; and spectral. The sensor system's telescope, the
first with simultaneous spectral and radiometric measurement capabilities, takes precise, calibrated measurements in three infrared bands.
Sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Lincoln Laboratories, the OAMP sensor is a cryogenically cooled system that features an infrared telescope and focal plane assembly. OAMP uses a digital control pointing and tracking gimbal to locate and track objects that emit heat into the atmosphere. About the size of a compact car, the sensor is mounted inside an RC-135 aircraft, the military version of a Boeing 707.
E-Systems is converting the COBRA EYE RC-135X (62-4128) into another COBRA BALL, initially with only a minimal sensor suite. Configured with windows on both sides of the aircraft, it will support the ballistic missile defense Theater Missile Defense Critical Measurements Program to collect target data.
