LJ,
E-3A lost 60 minutes endurance AFTER it was fitted with the ESM fairings - nothing to do with a comparison with E-3D (which has much better engines anyway)! E-3A has HF aerials at the wingtips, so adds to aerodynamics. Yellowgate pods at E-3D wingtips caused HF aerials to be mounted on a fairing above the outer wing - not so good for aerodynamics (or for HF Comms).
Don't like Yellowgate because it is designed to work at low level looking for sensitive submarine snorts etc. Once you put it up to 30K feet it picks up every radar in NATO! Yet another case of kit being used for something it is not really designed to do. I can't go into other reasons here. Its better than nothing, but only just!
