VV,
I agree with you reference the E3. It went to Herrick last year and offered very little in terms of additional capability. There are too many issues that prevent it from being able to provide the same level of C2 as say 1ACC.
Despite what folk on here might think, there are not enough ABMs knocking around. The FI commitment is not going away and Herrick numbers are on the increase at the moment. We struggle to support the UK commitment too. Binning the E3 would save us a fortune in maintaining airframes that do very little for UK PLC and would release the manpower into the main ASACS hub, kicking and screaming no doubt.
Has to be done IMHO.