E-3 Numbers Reduced Again

[TonyO]

Buried in the National Audit Office report into the MoD's equipment plan is this little nugget:

Royal Air Force brought forward the date when its E-3 Sentry aircraft will go out of service to December 2022, which is nine months before the replacement aircraft are expected to enter service. It will also reduce the size of the Sentry fleet from six to three aircraft, with effect from January 2020.

Explains why ZH104 was dispatched to Lake Charles Chennault, Louisiana last month.

Needless to say, catch them while you can.

[reaper493]

At present only one is Airworthy, 106 which is currently in Spain for TLP.
101 was having engine runs on Wednesday at Waddington, and presumably 103 is hangared.
Whats left of 105 is now down the far end (Delta?) with 107 and 102 still parked on alpha, with various bits of tape covering up panels and cockpit.

Mike

[Freeman Lowell]

It's not too late for those that have yet to sign up for their extended Antipodean manual writing/fine tuning/seedcorn experience
Freeman

[welshandy]

Another capability gap!! No UK AEW for 9 months. I assume the French & NATO E3's will fill the gap?

[James Cutting]

Not really, seeing as we will get the E-7 Wedgetail. Not sure when they're due in service, though. I know Marshall's began the work last summer.

https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/ ... g-9077213/

[reaper493]

There will be a gap, the quote from Tony O at the top confirms a 9 month gap between E3 leaving and E7 arriving, and thats a 9 month gap in to service, no mention of when they will be operational, or at IOC.

Mike

[James Cutting]

Ah okay, fair enough - misread the post.

[dinger]

It could be argued that the capability gap already exists....

Dinger

[Bluetail]

To be realistic, the UK has probably had an AEW Capability gap for a number of years already due to the state of the Sentry fleet and its lack of airworthiness. So an extra 9 months is going to be hardly a problem. ZH104 was got airworthy only for it to be promptly despatched to the USA. I assume the others will end up pretty much going the same way.

[baz1]

and on top of all that the MOD blew £6m to Boeing to postpone paying £3billion for the Poseidon just to keep the accounts in the black and balance to books, it was uncovered by the National Audit office the watchdog warned the MOD's budget woes which could hit £13billion in ten years are now so serious they are hitting front-line operations.

[ColintheCaterpillar]

Another capability gap!! No UK AEW for 9 months. I assume the French & NATO E3's will fill the gap?

Yep, as they always have if required.

It’s easy to forget you can’t just post any old aircrew onto an AEW platform. The RAF is hardly flush with spare “traditional” aircrew (for E-3 read pilots, and the virtually irreplaceable navigators and air engineers; for E-7, read pilots), and the majority of E-3 rearcrew come from a very distinct background, the Fighter Control branch.

So essentially you’re gonna end up with many of those on Sentry going to Wedgetail, and they can’t do both jobs at once. Factor in aircraft service/overhaul schedules, contracts etc and it all becomes fairly logical.

[ColintheCaterpillar]

ZH104 was got airworthy only for it to be promptly despatched to the USA.

Not strictly true. From what I remember seeing, it was flying for several months before it went stateside.

[TIC TAC]

Could we really rely on the french the way thing are with europe at the moment

[Nighthawke]

I think you're confusing the EU with NATO

[tommc]

Could we really rely on the french the way thing are with europe at the moment

Why not? The RAF have been providing the French with heavy rotary wing support in Mali for the last few years.

[Vulcanone]

NATO and French E-3s have regularly exercised and often work over the UK, And the RAF E-3s using the NATO callsign points to who they are partly flying for..

[ColintheCaterpillar]

NATO and French E-3s have regularly exercised and often work over the UK, And the RAF E-3s using the NATO callsign points to who they are partly flying for..

I think “partly” should be replaced with “always” to all intents and purposes.

[Vulcanone]

Well it is Saturday and I was still half asleep...

[ColintheCaterpillar]

Well it is Saturday and I was still half asleep...

With me it’s permanent

[TonyO]

Could we really rely on the french the way thing are with europe at the moment

Why not? The RAF have been providing the French with heavy rotary wing support in Mali for the last few years.

And the French have kindly provided the UK with Atlantiques for sub hunting off the Scottish coast, because well, we didn't have one.