Awac + Escort spotted in Essex

[MixxyMatosis]

Saw them from tiptree. It was at quite a distance but I could clearly make out the distinct shape of the Awac. She had about three jets I couldn't identify in close formation and one tail end Charlie hanging back. It's quite an unusual sight around here. I wonder where they was off too.

[DJFish]

I saw a Sentinel escorted in close formation by three Tornado F3s, part of a flypast to commemorate Operation Ellamy I believe.

Edited by DJFish on Tuesday 24th April 20:56

[paul0843]

Saw them over London late afternoon today heading towards heathrow..
AWACS with 2 fighter escort and a small private jet with again
A 2 fighter escort

[m3jappa]

Saw these today, was told it was a sentry and a sentinel.

Were flying very low over south woodham ferrers at around 6.30 pm

The sentry and it's 3 jets were seriously loud.

[MikeGTi]

paul0843 said:

Saw them over London late afternoon today heading towards heathrow..
AWACS with 2 fighter escort and a small private jet with again
A 2 fighter escort

The private jet was more likely the Sentinel R1.

Sure I saw something the other day about Op ELLAMY fly pasts / commemorations.. But I can't find a link or anything.

[mph1977]

paul0843 said:

Saw them over London late afternoon today heading towards heathrow..
AWACS with 2 fighter escort and a small private jet with again
A 2 fighter escort

as has been suggested Sentry , Sentinel and fighter escort

the reason for saying this is given the Sentinel is based on a Bombardier Global Express airframe which was developed for the 'private jet' market initially

have we still got any Tonker F3s active ? I thought the AD role was fully Typhooned now ...

Edited by mph1977 on Tuesday 24th April 22:45

[Ian1976]

Jubilee flypast practice/rehearsals?

[nokio]

There were 2 x typhoon with the AWACS and 2 x tornados with the sentinel. Mod confirmed a flyby in recognition of the libya operation, flew over Enfield at about 6pm

[chilistrucker]

yesterday afternoon, heard something coming, just managed to dive into the garden in time to see a tornado fly over, (low) and giving it the beans. looked and sounded great.
unusual round here, (basildon) olympics maybe?

[mrmr96]

Thread here http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f...

[shouldbworking]

Lucky they managed to sort out whatever it was that had the sentry fleet grounded for the past few days in time

[Odie]

When awacs and sentinel are on operations do they usually have a fighter escort?

[Extra 300 Driver]

Odie said:

When awacs and sentinel are on operations do they usually have a fighter escort?

No because they're miles away from all the trouble

[PaulG40]

over on Fightercontrol.co.uk...

[horza]

That Sentinel looks fantastic.

[Lurking Lawyer]

Off at a tangent here but can anyone better informed about these things than me explain why a relatively new bit of kit like the Sentinel is being taken out of service so soon after its introduction?

Presumably it's not obsolete yet so is it purely on the grounds of costs-saving?

[jesta1865]

i never saw this, but a few friends have told me about it.

however there were some planes doing aerobatics near the a130 yesterday afternoon about 4:30pm, anyone else see them at all?

i thought they were kites at first, but they broke formation at one point and then disapeared at a fairly rapid rate of knots.

never saw them clear enough to say type, but they seemed to be blueish grey and about 6 / 7 of them.

[LukeBird]

Lurking Lawyer said:

Off at a tangent here but can anyone better informed about these things than me explain why a relatively new bit of kit like the Sentinel is being taken out of service so soon after its introduction?

Presumably it's not obsolete yet so is it purely on the grounds of costs-saving?

Didn't think they were heading out of service, they were just being offered as our contribution to the NATO electronic listening/battlefield command unit.

[Lurking Lawyer]

According to the RAF's own website:

RAF website said:

No.5(AC) Squadron stood up at RAF Waddington on 1 April 2004. However, it was only on 6 June 2007, that the first Sentinel R1 was delivered to the RAF. The Sentinel system entered service with the RAF in November 2008 and an Initial Operating Capability (IOC) was declared on 30 June 2009. Sentinel has been supporting operations in Afghanistan since November 2008 and has provided an enduring capability since June 2009. Sentinel continues to support and plays a vital role to operations in Afghanistan supporting both UK and Coalition forces. Under the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) it was announced that the Sentinel system will be withdrawn from service on 1 April 2015; this is 20 years ahead of its original out of service date

Less than 7 years in active service, and a withdrawal 20 years earlier than planned.

From the coverage that I had read, it had been doing a good job in Afghanistan by all accounts.

[londonagent]

Apologies for the dail wail link..

RAF jets soar over Parliament as politicians pay tribute to servicemen involved in the campaign to topple Gaddafi


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134801/RA...