E-8C JSTARS all-African American flight crew makes history > Air Mobility Command > Article Display af.mil - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from af.mil Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The flight crew of Airmen and Soldiers from the Georgia Air National Guard’s 116th Air Control Wing, active-duty Air Force 461st Air Control Wing and the Army’s 138th Military Intelligence Company – collectively known as Team JSTARS – used the training to, News stories from the United States Air Force Academy.
138th Military Intelligence Company – collectively known as Team JSTARS – used the training to also commemorate Black History Month.
“This mission gives us the opportunity to celebrate the legacy and honor our previous successors in the Air Force, primarily the Tuskegee Airmen, and the sacrifices they made in order to get us to where we are now,” said Capt. Dewey McRae, 461st ACW senior director instructor.
Given the large crew size on the E-8C JSTARS, the mission was years in the making.
“Within the active-duty and Guard, we have finally been able to come together and fulfill an entire African American aircrew,” McRae said. “Taking that a step forward, we not only had enough people for the actual mission crew but were able to fill additional seats with instructors and evaluators, taking a full jet of African Americans to represent the combat Air Force.”
23 The U.S. Air Force has deployed the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft to Ramstein Air Base, Germany to conduct training with Europe-based units.
The E-8C is an airborne battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform. Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with situational awareness to support military operations. The E-8C is a modified Boeing 707-300 series commercial airframe extensively remanufactured and modified with radar, communications, operations and control subsystems required to perform its operational mission.
The aircraft and Airmen are deployed from the 461st Air Control Wing (ACW) and the 116th ACW, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. During their time in the European theater, the aircraft and Airmen will participate in training exercises and events that demonstrate the steadfast U.S. commitment to NATO allies, enhance interoperability with
Update: US Air Force s Roper says service should better sell modernisation technologies to Congress
by Pat Host
The US Air Force (USAF) needs to explain more clearly to lawmakers how the service will benefit from technologies such as digital engineering to accomplish its modernisation goals, said Will Roper, the assistant secretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L), on 14 January.
According to the service’s outgoing acquisition chief, the USAF should stop arguing that it simply needs to retire older platforms without justifying its requests more fully. The USAF wants to divest legacy aircraft such as McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender aerial refuellers and Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) platforms. However, Congress, in the fiscal year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), enacted broad force structure minimums that prevent the USAF from retiring these and other legacy aircraft platforms over the next few