RAF to scrap E-3 Sentry this year

[red leader]

Thanks guys.
Defender slipped under my radar!!

[POL]

Looks like this week will see the final airframe return to Waddington

https://twitter.com/Farrell3Neil/status ... 62756?s=19

[reaper493]

The two in Cyprus are both due back this week, unsure if this will be the final flights or not.

[baz1]

must all be due to the bean counters keeping there eyes on the price of scrap metal!!

[Richard E]

must all be due to the bean counters keeping there eyes on the price of scrap metal!!

I did see a report "somewhere" that the US Navy were planning to acquire one of airframes for use as a continuation trainer for the E-6B fleet - can anyone confirm ?

[Alf]

must all be due to the bean counters keeping there eyes on the price of scrap metal!!

I did see a report "somewhere" that the US Navy were planning to acquire one of airframes for use as a continuation trainer for the E-6B fleet - can anyone confirm ?

See

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news ... r-aircraft

[red leader]

They don't hang about!!
Once they decide to scrap the axe comes down really quick!
Would be nice to get a final photo shoot opportunity.
Anyone know if RAF are planning a special send off?

[reaper493]

At the moment there's nothing planned. Could be like the sentinel end, that one came back from deployment and that was it.

A trip to Waddo this week might be on the cards for many.

1st one is due back Monday

[Doughnut]

So that is five Sentinel and the last three Sentry aircraft being withdrawn. What happens to the aircrew, flight / ground specialists and general ground crew ? In total that is got to be hundred or more RAF and contractor personal. With no similar types in service do they get retrained or made redundant ?

[baz1]

So that is five Sentinel and the last three Sentry aircraft being withdrawn. What happens to the aircrew, flight / ground specialists and general ground crew ? In total that is got to be hundred or more RAF and contractor personal. With no similar types in service do they get retrained or made redundant ?

probably retrained for the Wedgetail ?

[reaper493]

Alot of the Nimrod crew that left were offered to come back for P8, they could do the same for the E3, or they may convert to Drone types. With the E7 not that far away they could work with countries who already have a fleet to learn how to use, like they did with the RJ.

[thevulcan]

At virtual air tattoo this year they showed the royal Australian air forces wedgetails and how they were getting along with working with the RAF crews engineers etc. So I believe what you have mentioned is already on going.

[page_verify]

So that is five Sentinel and the last three Sentry aircraft being withdrawn. What happens to the aircrew, flight / ground specialists and general ground crew ? In total that is got to be hundred or more RAF and contractor personal. With no similar types in service do they get retrained or made redundant ?

For the aircrew, well they're RAF officers and SNCOs first, aircrew second. Many of them will be given ground roles, some transferred to existing aircraft, a select few transferred to the replacement aircraft, while some will be offered the chance to leave the RAF early. When the RAF foresaw a long gap in its maritime capability following the retirement of MR2, it setup project seedcorn that saw some relatively long term postings for some RAF aircrew to allied maritime fleets. Those postings weren't just about maintaining currency, it was about the RAF preparing its next generation of instructors - to the extent that some RAF MACr crew were training USN crews on P-8A.

[Gus0898uk]

We could always buy a couple of E2 Hawkeye's now that we have two carriers.

[Vulture 01]

Since neither carrier has the 'cat and trap' fitted, so launching and recovering E2's might prove difficult....

[Finty]

We could always buy a couple of E2 Hawkeye's now that we have two carriers.

Don’t think there’s a VTOL E2 variant!

[Red-Eye-Knight]

They don't hang about!!
Once they decide to scrap the axe comes down really quick!
Would be nice to get a final photo shoot opportunity.
Anyone know if RAF are planning a special send off?

It's sad some of these aircraft are not getting proper send offs, As we don't get much air traffic up near Leuchars now the only chance I used to get to see some of these aircraft were at airshows and what with the pandemic putting a stop to them it means myself and others missed the Sentinel retirement and now the E-3 and next year will be the Hawk by end of March so some if us will never see them again before they have retired.

[reaper493]

Believed to be 103 retuning tomorrow, mid afternoon.

[red leader]

Hawk still gonna be used by reds.

[Unknown74]

One good thing about living under an airport flightpath is that you see a few interesting PDs occasionally and Edinburgh last year had it's fair share which did funnily enough include a few RAF Sentries as well as the Transport C-17s and A.400Ms amongst others. So in a way that may have been my farewell to to RAF Sentries, regret not getting a few snaps when I saw them.