The E-8 Joint STARS was America's premier airborne battlefield surveillance and command aircraft, revolutionizing ground target tracking and battlefield management. First flown on April 1, 1988, it was a four-engine turbofan platform based on the Boeing 707-320 airframe that carried a crew of 21 specialists operating sophisticated radar systems. Measuring over 152 feet in length with a mission endurance exceeding 9 hours, it could track vehicle movements across one million square kilometers in a single sortie. The aircraft was manufactured by Northrop Grumman Corporation.
View in Encyclopedia| HEX CODE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States Air Force | — | 20319 | United States | ae1492 |