‘The ability to stare’: Why the US Air Force is eager to get the E-7 By Stephen Losey Mar 24, 05:22 AM

The U.S. Air Force has decided to buy a fleet of up to 26 E-7As from Boeing, similar to this E-7 Wedgetail from the Royal Australian Air Force, to replace its fleet of aging E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control planes. (Boeing)

AURORA, Colo. — For nearly 50 years, the E-3 Sentry aircraft served as the cornerstone of the U.S. Air Force’s ability to keep eyes in the sky. In the waning years of the Cold War, and throughout America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the airborne warning and control system aircraft, or AWACS, and its trademark 30-foot rotating radar dome swept battlefields and potential conflict zones around the world.

But that Northrop Grumman-made APY sensor takes 10 seconds to fully rotate and refresh its view of aircraft the AWACS crew is trying to track.

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