. AWACS

Type of aircraft: Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). Manufacturer: Boeing.

Maiden flight: 1972.

Use: Military surveillance and command center.

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WACS stands for Airborne Warning and Control System. An AWACS is an airplane that is used as a flying radar station and control center. Its jobs are to alert air defenses of incoming enemy aircraft or missiles and to provide a flying opera­tions command center.

Before radar was first fitted to air­craft in the 1940s, pilots had to rely on their eyesight to spot enemy forces. The first planes to use radar in combat were World War II night fighters. In the 1950s, radar was fitted to naval
airplanes and land-based patrol air­planes. They used radar to hunt enemy submarines and detect enemy ships and aircraft. In the 1960s the idea was taken a step further, and this led to AWACS.

U. S. defense planners feared an enemy attack might destroy or damage ground-based radar and communica­tions systems. The answer was to put a radar-based electronic system in a large airplane that could become an “eye in the sky” for commanding officers on the ground.

The U. S. Air Force ordered a conver­sion of a Boeing 707 airliner to become an AWACS. The first of these aircraft came into service in 1977. Named the E-3A Sentry, it looked like a 707 with one very obvious addition: a large,

mushroom-shaped rotodome on top. Inside the rotodome was radar and other electronics equipment. Other electronic gadgetry was packed into the wings, cabin, and tail of the airplane.

AWACS airplanes usually carry a crew of four and up to thirteen elec­tronics warfare specialists. Consoles inside the aircraft display computer – processed data on screens. Missions last eight hours or longer. The aircraft can be refueled in flight by a U. S. Air Force tanker, and crew members can take breaks in the plane’s rest area.

AWACS planes track enemy aircraft and ships and identify friendly forces. They can also listen in to enemy com­munications. Their radar has a range of more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) when tracking low-flying targets. At high altitudes, AWACS can detect a plane or missile at even longer ranges. Information is relayed to military com­manders, battlefield control centers, and even to the president and the secretary of defense. AWACS communications are jam resistant, which means they cannot be blocked by enemy electronic counter­measures. AWACS surveillance operates alongside spy satellites and robot drones, which are also used to gather military information.

The E-3A Sentry is still used by the U. S. Air Force, which had thirty-three AWACS planes as of 2006. Some of these are deployed overseas in combat zones. The AWACS E-3A Sentry is also used by NATO, the British Royal Air Force, and the air forces of France, Chile, and Saudi

TECH’^TALK

THE E-3A SENTRY

The E-3A Sentry is a modified

Boeing 707/320. It has:

• Four Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines.

• A rotodome 30 feet (9 meters) in diameter that rotates at six revolutions per minute in normal operations.

• A cruising speed of 530 miles per hour (853 kilometers per hour).

• An operational height of 29,000 feet (8,840 meters).

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Arabia. The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force uses a Boeing 767 version.

Other types of airplanes are used as AWACS aircraft. The U. S. Navy flies the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye on Airborne Early Warning (AEW) missions from its aircraft carriers. The Russians converted the Ilyushin Il-76 airliner into an AWACS airplane. Israel has its own AWACS system, without the big rotodome, in the Gulfstream G-550 air­plane. The Royal Australian Air Force uses the Wedgetail, an AEW aircraft based on the Boeing 737.