Squadron Service : Royal Air Force
The RAF received its first E-3D, ZH102, on March 21st 1991. All seven aircraft ordered has been delivered by mid-May 1992.
No 8 Squadron RAF was declared operational on the E-3D Sentry on July 1st 1992, although ZH102 had flown the first operational sortie on May 8th 1991. The squadron ceased operating its Shackletons on June 30th 1991, simultaneously moving from RAF Lossiemouth to RAF Waddington.
On July 16th 1992 No 8 Squadron's ZH104, operating out of Waddington, spent five hours monitoring the Adriatic on the first UN Maritime Monitor mission. Between July 23rd and August 6th, four of the Squadron's five crews and two aircraft were detached to Trapani in Sicily for UN duties. ZH101 and ZH105 were the Sentries involved, although ZH102 replaced 101 half way through the deployment.
On September 3rd 1992 an RAF E-3D was scrambled from Waddington to take over from a French E-3F which was monitoring the situation after an Italian G222 had been shot down while inbound to Sarajevo.
The RAF's second period at Trapani was undertaken between September 18th and October 2nd 1992, again with two aircraft and four crews.
From October 9th 1992 NATO began to enforce the no-fly zone over Bosnia. NATO and RAF Sentries monitored activity from Hungarian airspace, protected by Hungarian MiG-21s on 5-minute alert.
On January 19th 1993 RAF Sentry ZH105, together with a NATO E-3A, visited Budapest's Ferihegy Airport on a goodwill sortie. This was the 88th Sentry sortie flown over Hungary by the RAF on Operation Sky Monitor, in support of UN Resolution 781. By the end of March 1993 Sentries had logged 451 violations of the "no-fly" zone over the previous six months.
In twelve months of Yugoslav-related operations ("Maritime Monitor", "Sky Monitor" and "Deny Flight" which began on July 12th 1992, RAF Sentry AEW.1s of 8 Squadron flew 400 sorties, accumulating 3600 hours.
On November 21st 1994 NATO aircraft attacked the Udbina airfield in Serb-occupied Croatian territory. A NATO E-3A operating out of Trapani and a RAF E-3D from Aviano provided radar surveillance for the raid.
The E-3D component of the NATO AEW Force (RAF 8 Squadron) was declared fully operational in February 1995.
The RAF re-activated No 23 Squadron at RAF Waddington on April 1st 1996, partly to take over the training tasks of the Sentry Training Squadron, and also to streamline the supervisory chain of No 8 Squadron, which had been carrying out surveillance missions over Bosnia since July 1992. The new unit has three combat-ready crews, leaving six with No 8 Squadron. The two squadrons share aircraft as required. The RAF's seven E-3Ds carry No 23 Squadron markings on their starboard sides, with No 8 Squadron's markings remaining on the port side.
RAF E-3s took part in Operation Allied Force against Serbia which started on March 24th 1999.
During the period October 9th - 20th 2000 E-3s from the RAF, French Air Force and NATO were at RAF Waddington over to participate in an exercise entitled "Joint Tactical Information Distribution System Operators' Tactics Meet" (JOTM) designed to advance the means by which they share and use information crucial to winning and keeping command of the air in wartime.
On December 19th 2000 it was announced that Boeing had completed the upgrade of RAF E-3Ds with RSIP and GPS/INS.
USAF and RAF E-3s played an important part in Operation "Enduring Freedom" over Afghanistan, which started on October 7th 2001.
On October 31st 2001 it was announced that the UK MoD had certified E-3D Sentry Aircrew Training Services (SATS) as ready to begin training. SATS is operated for the RAF by Quest Flight Training Ltd, using an Evans and Sutherland ESIG-4500 visual system. The training system was formally opened on November 13th 2001.
On February 6th 2003 the British Defence Secretary announced the deployment of 75 RAF aircraft to the Gulf region, including a number of E-3Ds.
Operation Iraqi Freedom, the air component of which started on March 21st 2003, involved several US and British E-3s in the air at all times. Nineteen E-3s were deployed in total. The 363rd EAACS operated six E-3B/Cs from Prince Sultan AB in Saudi Arabia, and RAF 8 and 23 Squadrons operated their E-3Ds from the same base.
On August 5th 2004 Northrop Grumman announced that it had been selected as the Preferred Bidder to provide aircraft maintenance and design engineering support services to improve availability and reduce through-life ownership costs for the RAF's E-3D Sentry fleet. Northrop Grumman and the UK MoD will enter into discussions about the program specifics, with an anticipated contract award date of January 2005.
The Sentry Whole Life Support Programme contract is expected to be valued at approximately $1.19 billion (£650 million) over 21 years.
Under the terms of the contract, Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector will support the maintenance schedule for AWACS aircraft, ensuring that only one aircraft is in scheduled maintenance at any given time. The contract also includes repairs of structural parts and inventory upkeep, support of design engineering, maintenance training, and conversion and management of technical publications in an electronic format.
"Project Eagle" is the name given by the UK MoD to a major upgrade program for the RAF's E-3D fleet. Two prefered bidders (including Boeing) will take part is a technology demonstration program, with a winner to be selected in late 2007 and production work to being in early 2008. Boeing's submission will be based on the USAF's Block 40/45 upgrade.
At the request of the Italian government, NATO agreed to provide air security support in the vicinity of Turin during the Winter Olympics between February 10th and 26th 2006. This task was carried out by two RAF E-3D Sentries from the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force, operating out of Aviano AB.
On January 18th 2007 ZH106 was damaged at RAF Waddington, when an aircraft simulator used for towing
training jumped its chocks in high winds and ran into the real aircraft.
Amazingly it was not until December 21st 2007 (that's 11 months since the incident), that it was announced that Northrop Grumman had been awarded a contract from the UK MoD Sentry Integrated Project Team (IPT) for the repair of ZH106. Work will be performed under Northrop Grumman's existing Sentry E-3D Whole Life Support Programme (WLSP). The aircraft is due to be returned to service with the RAF in November 2008 (nearly 2 years since the incident).
The repair will involve the replacement of four aircraft frames, which were crushed in the impact, and a major aircraft skin. In addition, a fuel system gallery and main electrical distribution panel were damaged. The structural aspects of the repair and the electrical elements represent a considerable challenge, primarily due to the lack of availability of structural and other components that will necessitate significant manufacturing effort.
According to Flight International on August 1st 2008 the RAF "has decided against mothballing two of its seven Boeing E-3D Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft (AWACS), and will instead look to cut costs and hours flown by reducing the number of aircrews assigned to the type".
The magazine also reported: "A mission system upgrade to transform the E-3D into a hub for UK network-centric warfare capability is meanwhile under consideration by the Ministry of Defence. One proposal, from Boeing Defence UK, is based on Boeing's Block 40/45 upgrade for the US Air Force's 32-strong AWACS fleet. If advanced, the project would represents the first major upgrade for the E-3D's 1970s-vintage mainframe-based mission system. It would introduce new operator consoles with flat-panel displays, and open-architecture computing using commercial off-the-shelf equipment for lower through-life support costs".
In early September 2009 ZH106 was noted operating. This may have been the first time since it was damaged in January 2007.
On October 2nd 2009 Number 23 Squadron was disbanded for the fourth time in its 93-year histiory. The current plan is for the squadron to stand down until 2013, with the numberplate becoming dormant for that period, before the squadron reactivates as part of the E-3 community once again.
In 1996 No 23 Squadron reformed, acquiring four crews from No 8 Squadron and absorbing the Sentry Training Squadron, giving the squadron its initial dual role as both an operational and a training unit. In this guise, 23 Squdron shared operational duties with 8 Squadron on a 1:2 basis, reflecting the numbers of operational crews available to each unit. When 54(R) Squadron stood up as the ISTAR standards and training unit, the total number of crews was increased to 15. This left no accommodation space for the training element, so 23 relinquished the training role to 54(R) and became a purely operational unit in its own right with six operational crews.
During its time as an E-3D operator, the unit has supported RAF and NATO assets in a number of major conflicts. The squadron holds battle honours for Kosovo, Afghanistan 2001-2003 and Iraq 2003.
There are now nine Sentry crews, seven on No 8 Squadron and two on No 54(R) Squadron. Somehow this allows all seven E-3Ds to remain in service.
On December 9th 2009 it was announced that two E-3Ds and 200 personel from No 8 squadron are to be deployed to the Gulf (presumably to Al Udeid) after a request from NATO. The deployment is due to last until the end of February 2010.
Non-opertional flights by RAF E-3s were suspended as a precaution on April 12th 2012 after a suspected pylon fault was found on one aircraft during a routine inspection. The flight restrictions were lifted on April 24th.
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