E-3 Sentry
ICAO E3TFThe AWACS aircraft: a 707 with a thirty-foot radar disc on its back. Live E-3 Sentry positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No E-3 Sentry is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Boeing
- Role
- Airborne early warning and control
- Class
- L4J — Landplane, 4 jet engines
- Crew
- Up to 20
- First flight
- 31 October 1975
- In service
- 1977
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the E-3 Sentry
The E-3 is the aircraft that made AWACS a household word. The rotating disc above the fuselage houses a radar that can see several hundred kilometres in every direction, and the twenty-odd people inside use it to run the air battle — telling fighters where to go rather than going there themselves.
NATO operates its own fleet from Geilenkirchen in Germany, registered in Luxembourg with LX-N serials, and those aircraft are among the most reliably visible military aircraft over Europe. They fly long racetrack orbits, often over Poland, Romania or the Baltic, for many hours at a time.
The airframe underneath is a Boeing 707, so the fleet is very old. NATO plans to replace it with the E-7 Wedgetail from around 2031; the US Air Force is retiring its own E-3Gs faster than replacements arrive.
Callsign prefixes
- NATO
- NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force
- MAGIC
- A long-standing NATO AWACS block
- SENTRY
- US Air Force E-3 flights
How to recognise it
- —A rotating radar disc on two struts above the rear fuselage. Nothing else in NATO service looks like this.
- —Four engines on a low swept wing — the 707 outline, with a narrow fuselage.
- —On the feed: very long orbits at a constant altitude, often for eight hours or more.
Common questions
+ What does AWACS stand for?
Airborne Warning and Control System. In practice it means a flying radar station that detects aircraft at long range and directs friendly fighters, well beyond what ground radar can see.
+ Where are NATO's AWACS based?
Geilenkirchen in western Germany. The fleet is jointly owned by NATO members and registered in Luxembourg, which is why the aircraft carry LX-N serials rather than any single nation's.
+ What is replacing the E-3?
The Boeing E-7 Wedgetail. NATO has committed to it for around 2031, and the United Kingdom and Australia already operate it. American plans have been repeatedly revised.