system [FMS], not the full ‘glass’ cockpit
they looked at a few years ago, and we
have retained the ight engineer and
boom operator.’
The KC-10 was procured to carry more
fuel and freight further than the KC-135.
‘We can give gas to navy, air force, any
assets out there with our centerline hose
and boom — we go where we’re
needed and build windows of time to
ensure coverage.’
The 968th Expeditionary Airborne
Air Control Squadron (968th EAACS) is
commanded by Lt Col Jason ‘Floater’
White, who says his squadron is
essentially, ‘the airborne version of
‘Kingpin’.’ He adds, ‘We provide low-level
radar and communications coverage
with a more exible response option.
We will be responsible for a certain
BMA [battle management area] and can
assume control of certain missions sets in
that area.’
The 968th ies the Block 40/45 AWACS,
an upgrade that replaced the original
mission computing system with open-
architecture, commercial o -the-shelf(COTS) hardware. ‘It was di cult for air
battle managers and controllers to pull
data from the previous Block 30/35 — it
was all very 1970s. With the 40/45 it’s all
right there for you. It’s a Windows-based
common format that’s very intuitive.’
E-3 and ‘Kingpin’ operators alike are well-
versed on systems such as internet relay
chat, known widely as mIRC-chat. The E-3
now enables operators to open multiple
chat windows to converse with an array of
‘players’ in the AOR.
Lt Col Casey Grider commands the 727th
EACS, better known as ‘Kingpin’. ‘We have
sensors all over the AOR to help keep
everyone organized. We are a quiet unit
here on base — people can come here
and not even notice us. Inside the building
we have a main room with a team on
consoles, in a very similar set-up to what
you’d see in an E-3, and they are managing
the airspace in the AOR from the Med, all
the way to the east of Afghanistan. This is
the central hub and the operators can look
across the entire airspace.’
The CAOC at Al Udeid is responsible
for building and issuing the CENTCOM-Lt Col Justin Watson is the current
commander of the 908th Expeditionary
Air Refueling Squadron, which is indeed
the largest USAF KC-10 unit in terms of
airframes. ‘We have a signi cant portion
of the eet here,’ he explains. ‘New crews
come and go, and they’re here on a multi-
month basis. Our community is relatively
small, so we work on a constant rolling
cycle from Travis and McGuire [AFBs].’
The entire KC-10 eet, which currently
includes 59 aircraft, has undergone a
communication navigation surveillance/
air tra c management (CNS/ATM)
upgrade. Installation of the new avionics,
which include the Rockwell Collins
Flight2 integrated avionics system,
made the Extenders compliant with new
communications, navigation, surveillance
and air tra c management systems (CNS/
ATM) mandates for accessing
global airspace. ‘All the KC-10s
are now con gured with
the upgrade,’ says
Watson. ‘It’s just
a new ight
managementFEATURE ARTICLE // 380TH AIR EXPEDITIONARY WING
36 August 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
28-39 Al Dhafra C.indd 36 21/06/2018 17:23