Sentinel stands down

摘要

Following several earlier threats of retirement, the RAF has grounded the last Raytheon Sentinel R1. It comes after just 13 years of service - possibly one of the shortest operational lives of any front-line aircraft. On February 25, 2021, the RAF's last Sentinel R1 (serial ZJ694, operating as RRR7303, callsign 'ASCOT 7303') completed its final operational flight from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. Its final mission was to carry out surveillance activities off Russia's semi-exclave, Kaliningrad, and then close to Belarus. RAF Sentinels have been frequent visitors to Baltic airspace, often sparking a reaction from Russian Su-27 Flankers based in Kaliningrad. The Sentinel R1 delivered critical intelligence and target tracking information to British and coalition forces, right up to the day it was retired. It used a powerful multi-mode radar to provide long-range, wide-area battlefield surveillance, in near-real time, to a team of intelligence imagery analysts from No 1 ISR Wing. This team would conduct in-depth forensic analysis of the data, to provide intelligence products for the time-critical decisions required for current operations and future strategy planning.