Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday (29) that a US E-3 Sentry aircraft, equipped with an Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS), was destroyed in a Tehran attack with missiles and drones against Prince Sultan Air Base, in Saudi Arabia, on Friday (27).
Although the Pentagon has not yet officially spoken on the matter, broadcaster CNN confirmed damage to the aircraft by comparing satellite images of the air base from March 11 with more recent ones, which showed the aircraft’s broken tail and its rotating radar dome — a crucial part of the AWACS system — on the ground.
“That [o ataque ao avião espião] it could affect the U.S. ability to control combat aircraft and direct them to their targets or protect them from attack by hostile aircraft and missile systems,” Cedric Leighton, a military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, told CNN.
In updated numbers, each E-3 Sentry is worth around US$540 million. It is a modified Boeing 707 with the installation of a 9-meter-diameter rotating radar dome at the rear.
The AWACS system allows aerial monitoring of up to 310,000 square kilometers of battle space, from the ground to the stratosphere, according to military analysts interviewed by CNN.
Production of the E-3 Sentry began in 1977 and ended in 1992. The United States used it in operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Yugoslavia.
In addition to the Americans, NATO, the United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia and Chile have or had aircraft of this model.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the US Air Force has only 16 E-3 Sentry aircraft still in operation, of which six were stationed at Prince Sultan Air Base.
In 2022, the US Air Force reported that the model will be replaced from 2027 by the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail, a new AWACS aircraft with an estimated cost of more than US$700 million per unit.
