The Royal United Services Institute ‘white paper’provides an interesting insight into the argument of either continuing withE-3D Sentry, at an estimated cost of £2 billion for the capability sustainment programme or, spending a similar sum to replace it in the nearer future and therefore taking the ISTAR programme beyond the Sentry E-3D 2035 out of service date.
The final paragraph of the white paper quotes: “As such, with state-on-state conflict seemingly a growing possibility and new threat technologies already posing challenges for even the modernised E-3s fleets of the USAF and FAF, the RAF should not be reluctant to consider a more unconventional solution for its ABM&S requirements over the next 20 or soyears, instead of simply patching up the E-3D Sentry fleet through a capability sustainment programme in the hope that ‘it will do’ until the US provides aNATOwide E-3 replacement”.
From a politicians viewpoint, might this be a likely ‘no brainer’?