Painted Desert (Arizona) plateau's south border the Mogollon Rim, the north border of the Arizona transition zone. Owing to the strong rain shadow of the Mogollon Rim, the Painted Desert has a cold desert climate (Köppen "BWk"), with hot, dry summers and cold, though virtually snow-free winters. The annual precipitation is the lowest in northern Arizona and in many places is lower even than Phoenix. Much of the region is accessible only by foot or unpaved road though major highways and paved roads cut across the area. The towns of Cameron and Tuba City, both on the Navajo Nation, are two major settlements.
US signals intelligence in the Cold War Desert Shield Desert Storm. COMBAT APPLE aircraft began to gather SIGINT overland, over the Ho Chi Minh trail and Laos. They went without fighter cover, and in the threat envelope of antiaircraft guns and missiles. When the US detected the antiaircraft weapons, it quickly attacked them, and the North Vietnamese quit trying to shoot down the COMBAT APPLEs. Several other ELINT versions of the RC-135 flew out of Kadena for specialized ELINT collection, with some aircraft flying missions of 24 hours and more while still based at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, in the US. Flying from Kadena, the RC-135C model, called