July 10 (UPI) — Boeing has received a $93 million contract for engineering and technical support for the Air Force’s E-3 Airborne Early Warning and Control System radar aircraft.
The contract, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, will provide sustainment engineering and technical services for the Air Force E-3 fleet and will generate technical requirements for the E-3s of Japan, NATO, Britain, Saudi Arabia and France.
The work will be performed in Oklahoma City, Okla., with an anticipated completion date of July 9, 2022. $5.1 million in Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance funds are being obligated upon award and includes foreign military sales.
The E-3F Sentry AWACS plane is a modified 707/320 commercial airframe that has a large top-mounted 30 ft. rotating dome array radar. This radar array has a range of over 250 miles and can track large numbers of aircraft from ground level to the upper atmosphere.
The Sentry has a large suite of communications and data-sharing systems for rear-area or ship-based command-and-control operations. It has a flight crew of four and can carry up to 19 mission specialists to gather, interpret and share radar and sensor intelligence with other units.
The E-3’s Identification Friend or Foe system communicates detailed location information of friendly, neutral, and enemy forces. It has a range of nearly 6,000 miles and is capable of mid-air refueling for greater endurance.
The E-3 series has been in U.S. service since 1977 and has been extensively upgraded. It is the primary AWACS aircraft in use by the U.S. Air Force, NATO and other allied nations.
