Sentinel now out of service
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"The aircraft was commissioned in response to an Urgent Operational Requirement for an Airborne Stand-off Radar (ASTOR) during Operation HERRICK in Afghanistan in 2008."
I thought it was conceived much earlier than that. Or is my memory deceiving me?
I thought it was conceived much earlier than that. Or is my memory deceiving me?
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What an utter waste and with only about 6.460 hours on each one... why the heck they haven't looked at selling them on, surely there are "friendly nations" that would have been interested in them or is the fit still that classified?.
The journalist can't add (or I am going daft)
But it has finished it's 14 year service life..... and was delivered in 2008?
Either way, it seems a terrible waste that aircraft that are only 14 years old are being retired.
But it has finished it's 14 year service life..... and was delivered in 2008?
Either way, it seems a terrible waste that aircraft that are only 14 years old are being retired.
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
I thought it was conceived much earlier than that. Or is my memory deceiving me?
The Corps being 1 (BR) Corps of the BAOR back in the 70's. I worked on the concept phase in 1978.
The AAC were impressed with the US Army OV-1D Mohawk and thought that something similar would be useful.
It's a long sad story but it eventually mutated into Sentinel, by which time there was no BAOR and no massed ranks of Soviet armour to spot.
Cue the 'ASTOR isn't CASTOR' brigade.
It was an aircraft looking for a job in a world which had changed.
Lots of very talented people used it to the best of their ability and no doubt it did some good.
Now that it has gone .. who will miss it?
I recall there being an ASTOR Assistant Directorate in MoD(PE) in the mid-late 80s. It was the Director's baby. He retired about 1990, and started at the company in the US the next week.
It was relatively common to receive a nil cost UOR for kit that was already under contract. It served as jusification for Production Permits and Concessions; but as Two's In says, lowering the return on investment. A couple of examples I can think of from GW1 were ARC164 HaveQuick II radios and Prophet Radar Warning Receivers.
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You were probably thinking of CASTOR, the Corps Area Stand-Off Radar old sport.
The Corps being 1 (BR) Corps of the BAOR back in the 70's. I worked on the concept phase in 1978.
The AAC were impressed with the US Army OV-1D Mohawk and thought that something similar would be useful.
It's a long sad story but it eventually mutated into Sentinel, by which time there was no BAOR and no massed ranks of Soviet armour to spot.
Cue the 'ASTOR isn't CASTOR' brigade.
It was an aircraft looking for a job in a world which had changed.
Lots of very talented people used it to the best of their ability and no doubt it did some good.
Now that it has gone .. who will miss it?
The Corps being 1 (BR) Corps of the BAOR back in the 70's. I worked on the concept phase in 1978.
The AAC were impressed with the US Army OV-1D Mohawk and thought that something similar would be useful.
It's a long sad story but it eventually mutated into Sentinel, by which time there was no BAOR and no massed ranks of Soviet armour to spot.
Cue the 'ASTOR isn't CASTOR' brigade.
It was an aircraft looking for a job in a world which had changed.
Lots of very talented people used it to the best of their ability and no doubt it did some good.
Now that it has gone .. who will miss it?
If they're not allowed to be sold as they stand (anyway, which "friendly nation" are we thinking of selling them to?) then how much might it cost to convert them back to civilian Global Express - if that's even practical - versus how much would they then be worth in today's bizjet market?
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There's no obvious customer to sell them to - conversion back would be expensive (if even possible) - the USAF as additional E-11 airframes may have been one, but they are ordering new (and only the first E-11 had the Sentinel-style add-ons from a previous role)
Replacement? Well there's the NATO AGS system (Could the UK buy into that?), P-8 with AGS (are the USN going ahead with that?) Or your and my favourite, the 'capability gap'
Replacement? Well there's the NATO AGS system (Could the UK buy into that?), P-8 with AGS (are the USN going ahead with that?) Or your and my favourite, the 'capability gap'