A story to make you feel old: the first NATO E-3A to officially retire - 449 - left the E-3A Component on June 23, 2015.
Lt. Col. Gerald Probst, Deputy Logistics Wing (LW) Commander and Main Operating Base’s (MOB) project officer for the Retirement Aircraft 449 Project explains, “The fleet reduction was decided by the NAPMO nations and the main reason why aircraft 449 was selected to retire was a Depot Level Maintenance (DLM) inspection scheduled for mid-July 2015. DLM is performed on a six-year cycle and costs roughly 15 million Euros. Not performing this inspection means that the aircraft is no longer allowed to fly.”
Here it is arriving at Davis-Monthan.