RAF Brings Sentry Surveillance Operations to a Close

The withdrawal of the E-3D airborne warning and control aircraft leaves a temporary capability gap that will be filled by aircraft from NATO allies.

RAF Sentry AEW.Mk 1 ZH103 is seen during operations from RAF Akrotiri as part of No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group. (Photo: 83 EAG)

By David Donald • Contributor - UK

August 6, 2021

On July 30 the UK’s Royal Air Force flew its last operational sortie with the Boeing E-3D—known as the Sentry AEW.Mk 1 in RAF service—airborne warning and control aircraft. The aircraft in question, ZH103, flew the final sortie from the RAF's Akrotiri base in Cyprus, where the aircraft had been one of two deployed as part of Operation Shader, the UK’s contribution to anti-Daesh operations in Syria and Iraq. The aircraft has been withdrawn from service following its return to the UK on August 4.

Home-based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, No. 8 Squadron had maintained a detachment of E-3Ds at Akrotiri since January 2015. Recently the Cyprus-based aircraft also flew missions in support of Operation Fortis, the first deployment of the carrier Queen Elizabeth, which operated for a while in the eastern Mediterranean, launching operational sorties by its RAF and U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs.

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