AWACS | Aircraft And Military Technology - Encyclopedia Britannica

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External Websites

• Warfare History Network - The E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System
• Boeing - Boeing E-7: An integrated command and control node
• Air and Space Forces Magazine - A Quarter Century of AWACS
• NATO - AWACS: NATOÂ’s 'eyes in the sky'
• Federation of American Scientists - E-3 Sentry (AWACS)
• United States Air Force - E-3 Sentry (AWACS)
• CiteSeerX - AWACS Training Concept and Media: The Need for DMT (PDF)
• CORE - AWACS Training Concept and Media: The Need for DMT

AWACS aircraft and military technology Ask Anything Homework Help Also known as: Airborne Warning and Control System Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors History Britannica AI Ask Anything Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything

AWACS, a mobile, long-range radar surveillance and control centre for air defense. The system, as developed by the U.S. Air Force, is mounted in a specially modified Boeing 707 aircraft. Its main radar antenna is mounted on a turntable housed in a circular rotodome 9 m (30 feet) in diameter, elliptical in cross-section, and 1.8 m deep at its centre. The radar system can detect, track, and identify low-flying aircraft at a distance of 370 km (200 nautical miles) and high-level targets at much greater distances. It also can track maritime traffic, and it operates in any weather over any terrain. An airborne computer can assess enemy action and keep track of the location and availability of any aircraft within range. The communications system, enabling the control of friendly aircraft in pursuit of enemy planes, operates over a single channel, secure from enemy interception, that is also relatively immune to jamming because of its high speed.

Abbreviation: of Airborne Warning And Control System (Show more) Key People: Lori Robinson (Show more) Related Topics: airborne radar (Show more) See all related content

The first production-model AWACS entered service in 1977. The U.S. Air Force uses the AWACS, which it designates as E-3, as a command and control centre for units of its Tactical Air Command and also for command and control activity in its North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). NATO also uses the system.