88 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION PATROLLERS AND AIRLIFTERS
Type: Five-crew airborne battlefi eld and ground surveillance aircraft
First fl ight: May 26, 2004; entered service 2008
Powerplant: 14,750lb st (65.6kN) Rolls-Royce BR710 turbofans
Dimensions: Span 93ft 6in (28.50m), length 99ft 5in (30.30m)
Weights: Empty 54,000lb (24,494kg), all-up 93,500lb (42,412kg)
Max speed: 610mph (982km/h) at 36,000ft (10,973m)
Range: 5,754 miles (9,260km)
Armament: Nil
Replaced: N /A
Taken on charge: Five
Replaced by: N /ARAYTHEON SENTINEL
O
ne of the most important
aircraft in the current RAF
arsenal is the state-of-the-art
Raytheon Sentinel.
Developed as an airborne
battlefield and ground surveillance
asset, specifically to the RAF’s
Airborne Stand-off Radar (ASTOR)
requirements, it is based on the
Bombardier Global Express ultra-
long-range business jet.
The RAF’s ASTOR has its roots
in the British Army’s Corps
Airborne Stand-Off Radar
(CASTOR) programme of the
1980s, which involved modification
of a Britten-Norman Islander
fitted with a large nose radome for
battlefield surveillance.
By the end of the decade the
programme had morphed into
what is now referred to simply as
ASTOR. The Islander had a Thorn-
EMI radar and flew a number
of low- altitude trials to assess its
compatibility with the USAF’s E-8
J-STARS (Joint-Surveillance Target
Acquisition Radar System).
Experience in the First Gulf War
of 1991 highlighted the successes
of both J-STARS and the ASARS-
2 developed for the USAF’s U-2.
The UK decided to combine both
systems into a single platform, but
budget restrictions in the post-Cold
War period meant it was not until
December 1999 that the production
contract was finally signed. The
order called for Raytheon to develop
a five-aircraft ASTOR system, using
the Global Express as the basis for
the airborne platform.IMMEDIATE SERVICE
Raytheon began work on the
first aircraft in August 2001
and, following the conversion
programme, re-flew it with ASTOR
installed on May 26, 2004.
Service trials began in 2007 and V
Army Co-operation (AC) Squadron
flew the first operational Sentinel
R.1 mission over Afghanistan on
November 15, 2008.The aircraft immediately proved
to be of great use in that theatre
and again during 2011’s Operation
Ellamy in Libya. Its flexibility is a
distinct advantage in areas where
small targets, such as groups of
insurgents, can appear and
disappear quickly.
The Sentinel R.1 provides
long-range, wide-area battlefield
surveillance, delivering critical
intelligence and target trackinginformation to British and coalition
forces. It has been deployed in
support of operations in Afghanistan,
Libya and Mali, and as of 2018 flew
in support of British and Coalition
operations in Iraq and Syria.
The aircraft’s dual-mode synthetic
aperture radar/moving target
indication (SAR/MTI) radar is
known as the Sentinel Dual Mode
Radar Sensor (DMRS). One radar
tracks movement, while the other is1918 2018RAYTHEON
SENTINEL
2008 TO PRESENT
“It has been deployed in support of
operations in Afghanistan, Libya and Mali,
and as of 2018 fl ew in support of British and
Coalition operations in Iraq and Syria.”
Right
A Sentinel R.1 at an
undisclosed airfi eld
in the Middle East.
The type provides
long-range battlefi eld
intelligence,
target-imaging and
tracking for the RAF
and the Army, and
conducts surveillance
applications in
peacetime, wartime
and in crisis operations.
CROWN COPYRIGHT/SGT
LAURA BIBBY