What the heck was that ? (part 2) By Aviation Editor Doug Maclean
Pictures with thanks to – Kai Brown, Eddie Wallace, NATO, Flight Radar 24 and Radar Box
Continuing the Ayrshire Daily News mini series on the more unusual aircraft to use Prestwick and my attention was recently drawn to 2 aircraft coming from a Mediterranean island. Callsigns Nova 02 and Nova 03 the aircraft were listed in Flight Radar 24 as E3TFs.
The E3 is normally known as AWACS (Airborne Early Warning And Control System). Boeing manufactured the aircraft and call it the Boeing E-3 Sentry. The airframe is based on the Boeing 707 from the 1960s but its purpose is very different from that early trans Atlantic jet liner.
E3s have been in Prestwick occasionally over the years. The RAF had a fleet of 8 and NATO has 14 E3s based in Germany. Both of these operators would be seen at Prestwick on brief training flights. I cannot remember when a US Air Force operational AWACS was last in Prestwick. They have been very rare visitors and it is possible that this was the first ever visit by 2 US E3s together.
The E3 provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications. I have seen it described as a flying Air Traffic Control (ATC) Centre. That’s not really accurate as the job of ATC is to keep aircraft safely separated. The various Mission Controllers on the AWACS have a much more complex job because in the worst of conditions they try to manoeuvre aircraft together with the aim of shooting down their opposite number. In the meantime other aircraft and possibly ground forces can be firing missiles at both aircraft.
I have had the privilege of flying on an AWACS as a guest of RAF 8 Squadron. This fascinating flight lasted many hours and I was given full access to the whole aeroplane with the multiple systems being explained to me by the skilled crew. As you walk out to the aircraft my eyes were drawn to the fascinating sight of the large radar dome perched 11 feet above the aircraft and measuring 30 feet in diameter. The Tactical Director is in charge of all the Mission Specialists and the work of the aircraft.
The flight departed with the radar switched off and at a certain time in the flight the Tactical Director ordered that the radar dish was activated. The huge dish above our heads started to rotate 10 times per minute and all electronic systems became active.
Every moving object on the ground or sea or in the air, within at least 200 miles, became visible to the AWACS crew. Aircraft flying higher were detected many miles beyond that range.
The mission I flew on was to build up and maintain a recognised air picture of the airspace that we were interested in protecting with a variety of RAF and NATO fighter aircraft. The Mission Specialists on board carry out different tasks using radar to detect, identify and track aircraft.
The communications officers can transmit their picture to ground based NATO stations and even NATO aircraft flying under their control. The Passive Controller can identify any type of radar being transmitted from other aircraft or ground units.
This allows them to identify if their aircraft may come under attack from aircraft or missiles and the AWACS can be moved away from any threatening activity. During our flight a variety of “enemy” aircraft were identified and defending aircraft were sent to engage with them. The cabin was full of quiet communications. Some were talking with pilots, some with the Tactical Director and some with ground units. At the same time data was flowing between the AWACS and a variety of ground or air based NATO assets.
The whole crew were confident that if they needed to do this task for real no hostile aircraft or ground based threat would evade the all seeing AWACS which really did command and control the sky using their surveillance and communications systems. As an Air Traffic Controller at the Scottish ATC Centre I was very familiar with the airspace over the North Sea where we were flying. I was used to ground based radar which could show us aircraft flying at high levels about 200 miles from the Scottish coast. What the AWACS can see was frankly astonishing and multiple times more than we could ever see. It gave me a lot of confidence in the air defence of NATO countries.
As the light faded on a late November afternoon both E3s arrived at Prestwick. They had spent most of the summer and autumn operating from an airbase on a Greek island and were on their way home to their base in Oklahoma. Each aircraft has a minimum crew of 15 and can carry up to 33. As they were going home after a long detachment I expect most of the seats were full on both aircraft. These aeroplanes have been in service for 45 years and are due for retirement soon. There were many aircraft enthusiasts out to see the rare variant of these wonderful aeroplanes land at Prestwick for possibly the last time.
Both aircraft taxied out the following morning and departed across the Atlantic heading for Bangor airport, Maine in the North East USA. Quite unexpectedly Nova 02 decided that they rather liked Prestwick’s near 3,000 metre runway because a few hours later they returned to Prestwick with an engine problem.
As they were carrying fuel for a trans Atlantic crossing they had to orbit over the sea west of the Isle of Islay and dump fuel to get down to a safe landing weight. The discharge took place at 20,000 feet and the fuel would have vapourised long before there was any danger of it reaching sea level.
The American crew had an another unexpected stay in the crisp autumn sunshine of Ayrshire while engineers fixed the engine. The following day the flight crew were on hand to taxi the aircraft out to the lesser used Runway 20 where they ran the engine at various power levels before they were content that the aircraft was once again fully serviceable. The following day they set off again for their Oklahoma base and home.
The Boeing E3 AWACS has been in service with the US Air Force since 1977 and will gradually be replaced by a new Boeing E7 aircraft based on the twin engine Boeing 737.
The RAF and several other Air Forces have also ordered the new E7. It’s function will still be Surveillance, Control and Communications but it’s technology will be decades more modern than the E3 that was so briefly seen at Prestwick just a few weeks ago.
