A guided tour of JBER’s Airborne Air Control Squadron

  • Published
  • By David Bedard
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  "Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contended armies, the war must become a conflict between the seeing host and one that is blind." - H.G. Wells

Though fighters like the F-15 Eagle and their crack pilots are often wholly credited for quickly gaining air supremacy in conflicts prosecuted by the United States in the past 30 years, perhaps an unsung hero of those air campaigns is the Airborne Warning and Control System in its numerous guises in the Air Force and the Navy.

Air Force 1st Lt. Shawn Partington, 962nd Airborne Air Control Squadron executive officer, said his unit flies E-3 Sentry AWACS in support of the Pacific Theater, air sovereignty, and worldwide operations.

"The 962nd Airborne Air Control Squadron provides the commander of (Pacific Air Forces) and U.S. Pacific Command with long-range airborne surveillance detection, identification, and command and control platform for both land and deployed composite wing operations," Partington explained. "We support the commander, NORAD, his commitment to the defense of the Alaska NORAD Region and responds to worldwide taskings directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

Partington said the E-3 is based on the four-engined Boeing 707 jet liner which is capable of being refueled in the air.

The most conspicuous aspect of the E-3 is its 30-foot wide, six-feet tall rotodome perched upon two 11-foot struts just forward of the aircraft's tail.
 
The aviator said the pulse doppler radar fitted inside the rotodome has a detection range of 250 nautical miles, with robust communications systems inside the airframe allowing the aircraft to relay tactical information.

"We can do a whole host of different missions, because we have a lot of different radios on our aircraft, and because we have a very large radar on top, the rotodome, we are able to see farther than other people as well as communicate with more people than other platforms," Partington said. "We can provide air-to-air support for air-to-air fights with fighters. We can also provide close air support for guys on the ground that are in trouble and need help."

Though the E-3 can help direct A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft which aren't equipped with a radar, Partington said the platform is also a force multiplier for aircraft as modern as the F-22 Raptor with its advanced active electronically scanned array radar.

"An F-22 can see a lot, but we can help provide information they can't see or that they don't know about," he said. "Or, because of their specific mission type and what they're doing, they're focused on a specific detail, whereas we have more of a broad-stroke approach towards the battlespace and command and control of it."

Partington said the squadron includes personnel from the Canadian Defense Forces and, because of the nature of the AWACS mission, has a high density of officers to enlisted members.

There are 16 crew positions on the E-3 and the squadron represents 20 diverse career fields.

Partington said the aircraft commander, co-pilot, navigator and flight engineer operate on the flight deck.

Technicians on the aircraft are responsible for operating the Sentry's systems and include a communications system operator, a communications technician, a computer display and maintenance technician and an airborne radar technician.

Communications operates more than 30 radios and stays in touch with all of the different communications platforms on the battlefield.

The surveillance section is responsible for operating the radar, detecting, identifying and tracking aircraft in the battlespace.

Partington explained what the surveillance section does when they process a radar acquisition.

"First thing you're going to do is put a piece of symbology on it, so we start getting information from that radar dot," he said. "Then you're going to start figuring out what's its altitude, what's its heading, where's it going, what's its speed, what's it doing, where's it coming from. You start running the ID matrix, and they can be very complicated depending on the theater that we are in.

"Based what's on the ID matrix, which runs off the rules of engagement on our jet, we can take something from a completely unknown aircraft and, in a manner of a few minutes or even seconds, we can take it all the way up to a bandit which is an enemy aircraft that we can't shoot on or a hostile which is an enemy aircraft we can shoot on," Partington elaborated.

"Or we can determine that an aircraft that we don't know - who it is, is it a friendly - whether it's a damaged aircraft that can't talk to us, or it's a friendly that is perhaps doing
black ops that we didn't know about."

The weapons section is responsible of controlling aircraft operating in the battlespace. Partington said the section has to take a lot of data such as area threats, air tanker status, mission priorities, fuel status for fighter and attack assets and what kind of weapon needs to be employed among other considerations.

"When you put all of the information and fuse it together, that's what command and control is all about," the aviator said. "From the weapons perspective, it's an intensive course of constantly learning about, not only our capabilities, but also the enemy's and trying to figure out the best way to not only mission plan for a successful mission, but also spur of the moment when things start happening."

Partington said the squadron's subordinate flights align with E-3 crew functions.

A Flight includes aviators who operate on the flight deck, B Flight is home to the weapons sections, C Flight is where the surveillance sections belong, and D Flight includes all of the E-3 technicians.

Squadron maintenance personnel belong to the 703rd Aircraft Maintenance.

Because the E-3 operates as the hub for air operations in an area of responsibility, Partington said both enlisted and officer E-3 crew members often have to think and act above their pay grade.

"The Airmen we have are top quality," he said. "They have a lot of weight on their shoulders in terms of responsibility and decision making."