ISR's Iron Triad

摘要

The Air Force's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance portfolio is undergoing a shift from a force structured to support the demands of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to one tailored for more challenging environments. This will impact USAF's "big wing" ISR aircraft, a numerically small but critical component of the combat air forces. These large, manned platforms boast a great deal of specialized capability-from gathering sensitive electronic intelligence to air battle management to secure command and control links. As part of this effort, USAF is undertaking a series of large and small initiatives to keep these aircraft viable for decades to come. The service is eyeing successor platforms to the E-8 JSTARS and refining the capabilities of the E-3 AWACS air battle management and command and control fleet and the special-mission RC-135 fleet.