A brand new U.S. Air Power E-11A arrives at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 16, 2022. The jet’s Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, prolonged communications vary for a lot of items. (Shannon Bowman/U.S. Air Power)
The Air Power’s new E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communication Node is now circling the skies over the Center East, because the U.S. seeks to increase the vary of communications for its personal items and its army companions.
The brand-new jet first touched down at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in December, the Air Power introduced final week.
Primarily functioning as a low-Earth satellite tv for pc, the BACN system permits for information transmission between completely different plane techniques and offers a sign increase to on-the-ground items.
By connecting to the plane, troops inside its vary can contact distant operations facilities or coordinate shut air help with out organising satellite tv for pc communications in tough terrain.
The jet may very well be utilized in U.S. and NATO efforts to discourage Russian aggression. Plane trackers lately recorded E-11As working off the coast of Syria and Lebanon at a time when the Russian navy encountered allied forces within the Mediterranean.
The E-11A is operated by the 430th Expeditionary Digital Communications Squadron and joins three jets of its sort within the unit’s arsenal, which has been strained due to repeatedly excessive demand, the Air Power stated within the assertion.
“This new E-11A will relieve the strain on the remainder of our fleet and allow us to maintain a excessive mission succesful charge,” Lt. Col. Todd Arthur, the 430th EECS commander, stated within the assertion.
Prince Sultan, a Saudi base south of Riyadh with a steady U.S. presence, has emerged as a focus for U.S.-Saudi army cooperation.
A U.S. Air Power E-11A lands at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 16, 2022. This E-11A is the latest addition to 430th Expeditionary Digital Communications Squadron’s fleet and extends the vary of communications channels for army items. (Shannon Bowman/U.S. Air Power)
Reinforcement of the small fleet of high-demand communications plane is the most recent replace amongst army and intelligence initiatives thought to handle the specter of Iran amid Russian use of Iranian-made drones in its unprovoked struggle in opposition to Ukraine.
The Air Power plans to triple its E-11A fleet with six new plane as a part of a $464.8 million contract. The planes, that are based mostly on the Canadian business Bombardier World 6500 platform, are modified to hold a spread of high-bandwidth information hyperlink terminals and airborne radios.
Till 2020, the unit was deployed at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. Its crews have been in such excessive demand there that the small fleet of plane hardly ever left the theater apart from for upkeep.
E-11A pilots, who come from different plane sorts and volunteer for the extremely specialised obligation, usually flew their first missions within the jet solely after arriving within the fight zone, the Air Power instructed Stars and Stripes in 2020.
The E-11A fleet has suffered setbacks, together with a crash in Afghanistan in January 2020 that resulted within the deaths of two 430th EECS pilots, whose jet suffered catastrophic engine failure.
After the hurried American withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summertime of 2021, the EECS shifted throughout the Persian Gulf. Its crews proceed to help workout routines and operations with regional companions, the Air Power stated within the Jan. 2 assertion.
In 2021, the Air Power introduced plans to deliver a brand new BACN squadron to Robins Air Power Base, Ga. The primary E-11A is anticipated to reach on the base this spring.
