FIRST JSTARS JET FLIES INTO RETIREMENT

摘要

Robins Air Force Base in Georgia retired its first E-8C ground target tracking plane in February, marking the start of a divestment effort that has waffled for years. JSTARS, or Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, tail No. 92-3289, was the initial jet in a 16-plane fleet that arrived at Robins in 1996. On Feb. 10, it came full circle as the first to head to the aircraft retirement site known as "the Boneyard" at Da-vis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. "The first retirement of a JSTARS aircraft gives us an opportunity to celebrate the operational accomplishments and the pivotal role the aircraft has played," Col. Amy Holbeck, 116th Air Control Wing commander, said in a Feb. 11 release. Active duty airmen in the 461st Air Control Wing and Georgia Air National Guardsmen in the 116th ACW share the mission, which uses a massive radar on the jet's belly to track where faraway ground forces are going and sends that data to other aircraft and troops below. It has flown in military operations from Desert Storm in 1991 to Iraq and Afghanistan a decade later, to the ongoing surveillance of Russian troops amassed at Ukraine's border, with counter-narcotics and many other missions thrown in as well. In 2019, the Air Force pulled the JSTARS fleet out of U.S. Central Command after an 18-year continuous deployment supporting counterterror missions.