This delicate mission involved
small teams of special forces
operatives on the ground totally
dependent on air support to
defeat more numerous Taliban and
al-Qaeda fighters. RAF and USAF
E-3 crews were the vital link between
strike aircraft and special forces, and the
arrival of air support often prevented the
small teams of US soldiers being overrun.
This vital role has been repeated in
operations in Iraq in 2003, Libya in
2011 and in Syria/Iraq after 2014.
The RAF E-3D fleet has been based at RAF
Waddington, Lincolnshire, since it entered
service and the aircraft also have a key
role in the air defence of the UK. When the
Sentries were ordered in the 1980s they were
intended to co-ordinate hundreds of RAF and
NATO fighters defending the North Sea and
North Atlantic from Soviet air incursions.
This threat almost disappeared with the fall
of the Berlin Wall in 1989 but re-emerged in
a deadly new form on September 11, 2001.
The prospect of hijacked airliners being turnedsuccessor
Above: The future face of RAF airborne early warning? The Royal Australian Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail
is the service’s favoured AWACS replacement and is seen here after receiving fuel from a 340th
Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron KC-135 Stratotanker during a mission in support of Operation
Inherent Resolve last year. USAF/Staff Sgt Michael Battles Below: The pilot of an RAF E-3D Sentry during a
training mission over northern England. The RAF Sentry fleet has failed to keep pace with its US, French
and NATO counterparts after a major upgrade was shelved under the 2010 SDSR. Crown Copyrighthttp://www.airforcesmonthly.com #369 DECEMBER 2018 // 69