sargs,
I know no more of detailed operations of the Sentinel than you can read in open forums, e.g
PICTURES: RAF marks Sentinel, Shadow surveillance aircraft milestones
I know that the Sentinel is out in the 'Stan, but how effective is it out there? Is it there partly because we have it, and partly to justify its existence. It was designed to locate and track the movement of armoured columns of a conventional army, is it now being used to track small illicit arms shipments in Afghanistan....? How well can it do that task, and how important is it?
Is the american E-8 J-STARs out there? If not, then why not? Is Sentinel better, as a more modern platform, or is a JSTARS type capability not actually vital in theatre?
I guess (know?) the questions I am asking are of too classified a nature to generate a response. My only point is, just because its in Afghanistan doing a job, I don't consider it to be safer than most other platforms.
Edited to add, looks like JSTARS may be going soon, if this is to be believed (it is wiki...)
E-8 Joint STARS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia