US Air Force Deploys Its Newest E-11A Aircraft To Saudi Arabia That Can Act Like A Low-Earth Satellite

The US Air Drive (USAF) has deployed an all-new mannequin of certainly one of its treasured communications plane to Saudi Arabia, in line with a press launch by the USAF issued on January 2.

An E-11A outfitted with Northrop Grumman’s Battlefield Airborne Communication Node (BACN) arrived at Prince Sultan Air Base in mid-December final 12 months.

The brand new E-11A, whose serial quantity is 21-9045, was handed over to the USAF by the Canadian airframe producer Bombardier Protection in September 2022, and the plane arrived in Saudi Arabia on December 16, 2022, to formally be a part of the 430th Expeditionary Digital Fight Squadron at Prince Sultan Air Base.

The jet is the primary of six E-11As the USAF is predicted to obtain by the tip of 2026. It brings the full measurement of the USAF’s E-11A fleet to 4.

The newest E-11A is a closely modified Bombardier World 6500 enterprise jet, whereas the USAF has three different E-11As primarily based on BD-700 and World 6000 sorts.

USAF introduced its plans to obtain six new E-11As in February 2021 after certainly one of its 4 authentic E-11As was misplaced in a crash in Afghanistan in 2020. The 430th Expeditionary Digital Fight Squadron is the USAF’s solely operational E-11A unit.

It was ahead deployed at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan till 2020, after which, as a part of the withdrawal of the US forces from that nation, the unit was relocated first to Al Dhafra Air Base within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after which to Prince Sultan Air Base.

The USAF is now additionally planning to determine a brand new base for the E-11As within the US at Robins Air Drive Base (AFB) in Georgia, which shall be in charge of the 319th Reconnaissance Wing headquartered at Grand Forks Air Base in North Dakota.

The choice to determine a US-based E-11A squadron has come because the service phases out its fleet of E-8C Joint Surveillance Goal Assault Radar System (JSTARS) battle administration plane. Robins AFB is at the moment the USAF’s foremost E-8C base.

The E-11A Plane

The E-11A is a high-demand, low-inventory asset which operates within the US Central Command space of accountability and spans greater than 4 million sq. miles of the realm stretching from Northeast Africa throughout the Center East to Central and South Asia.

The E-11A plane are outfitted with the BACN package deal, which the USAF officers describe as a ‘WiFi within the sky’ functionality that allows the E-11A to perform like a low-Earth satellite tv for pc, sustaining aerial command and management capabilities for airborne and floor items.

The BACN package deal is a extremely specialised communications gateway node designed to create an ‘energetic web’ over the battlespace and allow the switch of information despatched utilizing quite a lot of distinct waveforms between completely different airborne platforms and forces on the bottom/floor. The capabilities additionally permit the plane to function beneficial communications relay nodes.

“The 430th helps warfighters who conduct around-the-clock operations within the CENTCOM AOR. We provide communication protection to floor and air forces in energetic fight zones, which require constant, clear communications to increased ranges of management and different command and management property,” mentioned Lt. Col. Todd Arthur, the 430th EECS commander.

The E-11As need to be commonly rotated again to the US for upkeep and different work, and since these are so few, the coaching of latest pilots to fly them principally occurs on the job in theater.

The E-11As May Be Very Worthwhile In A Future Potential Struggle In opposition to China Or Russia

Following the tip of energetic US army operations inside Afghanistan, the E-11As have been actively used for varied different operational and coaching duties whereas flying from the Arabian Peninsula.

These embody varied workout routines off the coast of Israel and the continued US-led coalition operations in Iraq. Aside from that, in 2021, no less than one E-11A was employed in a joint US-UAE train focussed on using a number of platforms collectively to execute and refine techniques, strategies, and procedures to counter Unmanned Aerial Automobile (UAV) threats.

Reviews recommend that the BACN functionality of those jets might be very beneficial in any future multi-national coalition operations, contemplating their means to translate between varied platforms that in any other case might not be capable to talk immediately with one another.

For instance, the E-11A plane might be very helpful for supporting operations within the huge swathes of the Indo-Pacific, the place the US army is more and more making ready for a possible future high-end battle with China.

The identical factor will be mentioned concerning the European theater, the place the US and its NATO allies have additionally been increasing their pressure posture to discourage Russia’s aggression, significantly within the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

That mentioned, for now, the first focus of the USAF’s E-11A fleet seems to be within the Center East, as is clear from the current arrival of the most recent mannequin of the E-11A within the area.