Aviation News — September 2017

W

hen the Avro Shackleton AEW.2

entered service with 8 Squadron

on April 11, 1972, most were

already 20 years old and had

been on the verge of retirement from the

RAF. Intended only as an ‘interim solution’,

it would be another 19 years before their

replacement, the Boeing E-3D Sentry AEW1,

 nally began work – following the Nimrod AEW

development  asco.

The need for a land-based airborne early

warning (AEW) aircraft emerged as the

effects of continually shrinking British defence

budgets in the 1960s rippled out.

Repeated economic crises led to defence

reviews, and major budget reductions resulted

in Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s 1967 decision

to withdraw British forces from ‘east of Suez’

and phase out the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers.

The Fleet Air Arm’s (FAA’s) organic carrier-

based AEW capability, provided by its Fairey

Gannets, shrank – but the navy still needed

coverage for the Fleet.

MINIMAL COST

The RAF was handed the task and, from

1969, planning for the ‘new’ role began. It

also had to be achieved at minimal cost.

Former Shackleton pilot and Officer

Commanding 8 Squadron, Group Captain

David Greenway (ret’d) told Aviation News:

“The RAF wanted the E-3 Airborne Warning

and Control System (AWACS) from day one

but the government decided we should have

the Nimrod AEW, mainly as a way of keeping

jobs and industrial capacity within the UK.”

Maritime Nimrods had recently replaced

the Shackleton, but several MR.2 versions with

sufficient remaining fatigue life were selected

for conversion to the AEW role – WL745

becoming, in effect, the prototype AEW.2,  rst

 ying in its new form on September 30, 1971.

SHACKLETON

AEW.2

COLD WAR ‘SENTINEL’

Group Captain David Greenway (ret’d), a former Shackleton

pilot and commanding offi cer of 8 Squadron, talks to Dr Kevin

Wright about the Shackleton AEW.2 in RAF service.

28 Aviation News incorporating Jets September 2017

28-33_shackletonDC.mfDC.mf.mfDC.mfDC.indd 28 04/08/2017 17:40