Deployed E-3 Sentry aircraft, crews, maintainers continue combat missions in Southwest Asia

Photo By Master Sgt. Jenifer Calhoun | Maintenance Airmen from the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Sentry aircraft maintenance unit prepare to launch an E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft on a combat mission April 24, from a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia. The E-3 Sentry is assigned to the 965th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron. The maintenance Airmen and the E-3 are deployed from the 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and are part of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia supporting operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.  

(UNDISCLOSED LOCATION)

04.29.2010

Story by Senior Airman Jenifer Calhoun 

380th Air Expeditionary Wing

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Maintenance Airmen from the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Sentry aircraft maintenance unit prepared and launched an E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft on a combat mission April 24, 2010, from a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia.

It was like any other busy day at this deployed location.

Deployed E-3 Sentry aircraft here are assigned to the 965th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron. Sentry maintenance Airmen and the E-3s are deployed from the 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and are part of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia supporting operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

According to it's Air Force fact sheet, the E-3 Sentry is an integrated command and control battle management, or C2BM, surveillance, target detection, and tracking platform. The aircraft provides an accurate, real-time picture of the battlespace to the Joint Air Operations Center. AWACS provides situational awareness of friendly, neutral and hostile activity, command and control of an area of responsibility, battle management of theater forces, all-altitude and all-weather surveillance of the battle space, and early warning of enemy actions during joint, allied and coalition operations.

Additionally, the fact sheet states the E-3 is a modified Boeing 707/320 commercial airframe with a rotating radar dome. The dome is 30 feet (9.1 meters) in diameter, six feet (1.8 meters) thick, and is held 11 feet (3.33 meters) above the fuselage by two struts. It contains a radar subsystem that permits surveillance from the Earth's surface up into the stratosphere, over land or water. The radar has a range of more than 250 miles (375.5 kilometers). The radar combined with an identification friend or foe, or IFF, subsystem can look down to detect, identify and track enemy and friendly low-flying aircraft by eliminating ground clutter returns that confuse other radar systems.

Major subsystems in the E-3, the fact sheet states, are avionics, navigation, communications, sensors (radar and passive detection) and identification tools. The mission suite includes consoles that display computer-processed data in graphic and tabular format on video screens. Mission crew members perform surveillance, identification, weapons control, battle management and communications functions.

In the first three months of 2010, E-3 Sentry aircraft with the 380th AEW have flown more than 100 combat missions and handled more than 5,000 aircraft in air battle management for combat operations, said Mr. Ralph Jackson, 380th AEW historian.

"The deployed AWACS aircrews also handled more than 100 troops in contact events for the first three months of 2010," Mr. Jackson said.

Established at a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia on Jan. 25, 2002, the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing is home to more than 1,900 personnel completing one of the most diverse combat wings in the Air Force. The wing is comprised of four groups - an expeditionary operations group, maintenance group, mission support group and medical group -- and 12 squadrons.

• Date Taken: 04.29.2010
• Date Posted: 04.29.2010 02:50
• Story ID: 48862
• Location: (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION)