US Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft is prepared for flight in November 1997
Cockpit of RAF E-3 Sentry undergoing upgrades
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) is a radar-based electronic system designed to carry out airborne surveillance, and C3 (command, control and communications) functions for both tactical and air defence forces. The system is designed and built by Boeing (Defense & Space Group) using Northrop Grumman radar and flown on either the E-3 Sentry aircraft (Boeing 707) or more recently a modified Boeing 767.
The USAF has an inventory of 33 E-3 Sentry aircraft, the majority of which are located at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. The Air Battle Manager Badge and the Weapons Director Badge are two Air Force badges which are authorized for personnel assigned to E-3 aircraft.
NATO also has 17 (originally 18, but one was lost due to an accident) E-3 Sentry aircraft, stationed in Geilenkirchen, Germany.
In USAF service, this role is to be taken over by the E-10 MC2A.
The U.S. Navy uses the Grumman E_2 Hawkeye for its Airborne Early Warning (AEW) missions. AEW aircraft offer a limited subset of capability.
In Soviet service, the Ilyushin A-50 Mainstay is an AWACS conversion of the standard Il-76 'Candid' strategic airlifter. Systems integration and radar performance are considered to be marketedly inferior to the E-3. Several foreign countries (Iraq, China, and India) have also used the Il-76 as the base platform for their own airborne radar needs.
AWACS can forward the location and track of friendly and adversary systems to users ranging from the individual pilot in a fighter cockpit to the White House Situation Room--at the same time.
AWACS crews provided data used in more than 120,000 coalition sorties and played a major role in all but two of the coalition's 40 air-to-air kills of the Gulf War.
AWACS, he said, was one of the most important of these new force multipliers, particularly when the aircraft operated in concert with the Joint STARS ground surveillance system.
In air-to-air combat, AWACS systems can communicate with friendly aircraft, extend their sensor range and give them added stealth, since they no longer need their own active radar to detect threats.
Listen here to a French AWACS (callsign Cyrano) in contact with their commandpost 'Veilleur', monitored by the Frequency Monitor Centre, audiofile is in French...
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