The Royal Air Force has begun testing flying the first of it’s fleet of Sentry E-3D airborne early warning aircraft repaired after being taken out of service in October due to electrical wiring problems.
Defense News exclusively reported the entire fleet had been grounded Nov 4. Later media reports said some underfloor wiring was arcing creating a potential fire risk. Fire blankets on the aircraft were also found to not be fireproof, said the reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain\u2019s allies have had to step in and fill the temporary capability gap created by the aging aircraft being grounded while repairs are undertaken.\u00a0In particular the British aircraft and its crews had been active providing support to anti-Daesh operations over Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The remedial work on the jets has been undertaken by an RAF-led team which also includes support providers Northrop Grumman and other industry suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Northrop Grumman\u2019s UK arm recently signed a nine year extension to it\u2019s support and availability contract for the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wiring replacement work has been undertaken at the Sentry\u2019s temporary base at RAF Coningsby as the aircraft\u2019s normal home, RAF Waddington, is closed to large jets while a new runway is laid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The RAF Sentry fleet was due to be taken out of service in 2025, but the British announced in their Strategic Defence and Security Review last year that the aircraft’s life was being extended \u200eby a further 10 years to 2035. The extension\u200e is expected to result in a major sustainment and update program on the aircraft starting around the end of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As part of this requirement, a number of capability sustainment options are under consideration, the capability development plan will be confirmed in due course,” said the RAF spokesman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This comes after the fleet of Sentry E-3D airborne early warning aircraft were taken out of service in October due to electrical wiring problems. If the tests go to plan the first aircraft could be returned to operational service in the second half of January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,46,11],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3351],"class_list":["post-29298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-europe","category-global"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4HV6SVWTIBHZXHEGOJVY6S36GI","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2016\/12\/19\/uk-begins-testing-sentry-post-repairs\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n