A Royal Air Force Boeing E-3D Sentry made its final flight home to Waddington on Wednesday, after 30 years of service, during which time it has been a familiar sight over Grantham.
Better known as the AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System or AWACS) it has completed its final mission over Iraq as part of counter-Daesh Operation Shader.
The aircraft from No.8 Squadron had been deployed to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and was the latest and last deployment since 2015.
The E-3D Sentry entered RAF service in 1991 as part of the RAF’s ISTAR fleet and was immediately deployed to supported Air Operations during the first Gulf War.
There were seven of them in total, each named after one of Snow White’s Seven Dwarves.
Since then the Sentry aircraft have been involved in UK and overseas operations including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, the broader Middle East and the Caribbean, together with a NATO role.
The E-3D Sentry will be retired later this year and will be replaced in 2023 by a fleet of three Boeing E-7 Wedgetails that will operate from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.