Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS
Until its retirement in 2023 the aircraft was operated by both active duty USAF and Air National Guard units, with specially trained U.S. Army personnel as additional flight crew.Joint STARS evolved from separate U.S. Army and Air Force (USAF) programs to develop technology to detect, locate and attack enemy armor at ranges beyond the front line of a battle.[13] In missions from peacekeeping operations to major theater war,[6] the E-8C can provide targeting data and intelligence for attack aviation, naval surface fire, field artillery and friendly maneuver forces.Other improvement programs that have been applied to the E-8C include JSTARS Net Enabled Weapons (JNEW) and Joint Surface Warfare (JSuW); Blue Force Tracker (BFT); and Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) compatibility.While flying in friendly air space, the test-bed E-8A and pre-production E-8C aircraft monitored ground movements to confirm compliance with the Dayton Peace Accords agreements.The 93d Air Control Wing, which activated 29 January 1996, accepted its first aircraft on 11 June 1996, and deployed in support of Operation Joint Endeavor in October.Operation Allied Force saw Joint STARS in action again from February to June 1999 accumulating more than 1,000 flight hours and a 94.5% mission-effectiveness rate in support of the U.S.-lead Kosovo War.The E-8C Joint STARS routinely supports various taskings of the Combined Force Command Korea during the North Korean winter exercise cycle and for the United Nations enforcing resolutions on Iraq.[16][17] In September 2009, Loren B. Thompson of the Lexington Institute raised the question of why most of the Joint STARS fleet was sitting idle instead of being used to track insurgents in Afghanistan.Thompson states that the Joint STARS' radar has an inherent capacity to find what the Army calls 'dismounted' targets—insurgents walking around or placing roadside bombs.[19][20][21] Recent trials of Joint STARS in Afghanistan are destined to develop tactics, techniques and procedures in tracking dismounted, moving groups of Taliban.The Joint STARS aircraft executed three Operational Utility Assessment flights and demonstrated its ability to guide anti-ship weapons against surface combatants at a variety of standoff distances in the NEW architecture.The plane (serial number 92-3289/GA) which was the first to arrive at Robins AFB in 1996 has now been transferred to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base.Air Force procurement documents called for a replacement for the Boeing 707-based E-8C as a "business jet class" aircraft that is "significantly smaller and more efficient.In August 2015, the Air Force issued contracts to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman for a one-year pre-engineering and manufacturing development effort to mature and test competing designs ahead of a downselect in late 2017.
Airborne Battle ManagementManufacturerGrumman Aerospace CorporationNorthrop GrummanUnited States Air ForceBoeing 707airborne ground surveillancebattle managementcommand and controlAir National GuardU.S. ArmyAir Forcefront lineTacit BluePratt & WhitneyJT8D-219active electronically scanned arrayside looking airborne radarelectronic countermeasuresin-flight refuelingPave Moverground moving target indicatorsynthetic aperture radarDoppler radarDopplerUS ArmyMulti-Platform Radar Technology Insertion ProgramBattlefield Airborne Communications NodeRobins Air Force BaseOperation Desert StormOperation Joint EndeavorDayton Peace Accords93d Air Control WingBosnia and HerzegovinaOperation Allied ForceKosovo War116th Bomb WingGeorgia116th Air Control WingNorth KoreanUnited NationsLexington InstituteNaval Air Station Point Mugunetwork-enabled weaponIraqi FreedomEnduring FreedomNew Dawn461st Air Control WingGeorgia Air National GuardUnited States Central CommandU.S. Air Force309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration GroupDavis–Monthan Air Force Base2021-2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis2022 Russian invasion of UkraineBoeing 737Gulfstream 550BoeingBombardier AerospaceGulfstream AerospaceEdwards AFBBoeing E-6 MercuryBoeing 707sBoeing CC-137United States12th Airborne Command and Control Squadron16th Airborne Command and Control Squadron128th Airborne Command and Control SquadronMuseum of AviationSowela Technical Community CollegeLake Charles, LouisianaKelly FieldSan Antonio37th Training Wing379th Air Expeditionary WingBoeing KC-135T StratotankerPratt & Whitney TF33-PW-102AN/APY-7HAVE QUICKAN/ARC-190AN/ARC-210AN/ARC-231Airborne early warning and controlBoeing C-137 StratolinerCanadian ForcesBoeing E-3 SentryNorthrop Grumman E-2 HawkeyeEmbraer R-99BRaytheon SentinelList of active military aircraft of the United StatesList of military electronics of the United StatesWayback MachineDefense Newspost-1962EA-18GEA-37BEC-130EC-130HEC-135EF-10BEF-111A367-80KC-135NC-135OC-135RC-135WC-135CC-137EC-137KC-137Caesar's ChariotSAM 26000SAM 27000The StarshipAccidents and incidentsOperatorsBoeing 717-200GrummanG-215 (I)G-215 (II)G-1128G-1159Model 400-1 to -5-6 to -8F11F/F-11