Images geolocated by NBC News showed a command and control E-3 Sentry jet heavily damaged after the Iranian strike that also wounded soldiers.
The destruction by Iran of a warning and control system aircraft on an American base in Saudi Arabia on Friday could affect the U.S. military’s ability to monitor threats — and raises questions around its preparedness for a “longer war,” experts say.
Images verified by NBC News after they surfaced online appear to show much of the back end of the E-3 Sentry jet was destroyed at the Prince Sultan Air Base, the tail lying at an angle on the ground surrounded by debris.
Several American service members were injured in Friday’s strike on the facility, which sits around 80 miles southeast of the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh. At least one aircraft was also damaged in the strike, two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed to NBC News.
The MIC thanks everyone involved
That back fell off. That’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.
… probably was held together with cello tape. Or worse. Cardboard or cardboard derivatives…
🤣 I forgot about this
These planes are modified airliners with a giant spinning radar thingy stuck on. One of them can provide radar coverage over an entire region and tell all of our other planes where to go and what to do. That is too say, these planes are extremely important to modern air warfare, even if they don’t carry their own offensive armaments.
These planes also have a very custom, very unique design, and that makes them very expensive. You can’t just go buy more at the store, even if you have unlimited money. For starters, there aren’t many working Boeing 707s lying around any more to convert.
The US started this war with a fleet of 16 total airplanes. We now have 14, with one that appears to be a total hull loss, and another one confirmed to be damaged.
As an American, I am unhappy about this. This puts us in a significantly worse position if this shit escalates into the world war that some are saying has already started.
The “radar” part of this radar plane is even more priceless, as US manufacturers scramble to find rare minerals that China banned from export for military use. They literally cannot build them anymore
As a non american, I’m very happy about all this for the exact same reasons you specified makes you unhappy. This might be the end of the unstoppable bully the US is.
As a non-American, I am happy about this. There’s exactly 0% the US would be on the “good” side of a world war anyway if such a thing existed.
Trump’s in the Find Out phase, isn’t he?
No, we are.
He fucks around, we find out.
he just threw some shit at the ceiling fan and ran out of the room. Everyone else is getting covered by it.
And having them doesn’t mean they’re operational. Some of them are probably deadlined for various reasons.
They wanted to replace them with E-7As anyway. Last time I checked they planned to buy 26 of those
Losing a vital plane now when you are at war then it doesn’t really matter if it might get replaced sometime far in the future
Yeah I know, I just don’t think E-3s should be mourned lol, let alone in this war
But have they? And how soon until they are operational?
They can want to procure a lot of planes, ships, etc. But it means nothing until they are in hand and troops are trained on the new systems. We shouldn’t down play the USA taking loses when there is the potential for a wider conflict.
Thanks to the streamlined procurement process it will arrive on time in 2027, and then only be delayed another 10 years to allow the budget to balloon by 600% with a full 50% of the systems functioning 30% of the time. The Maintenance requirements will be 250% higher and only cost 75% more. But don’t worry, the mark II version shares 23% of the parts and performs 7% better. At which point, it will almost match the previous capabilities 80% of the time except in the weird fringe category that isn’t tactically relevant anymore.
Taking unnecessary losses. This is one guy who started this, followed by a bunch of yes-men and wanna-be profiters. There was no need for this at all. Yet here we are, and it isn’t going to suddenly go away, even with the most optimistic of efforts (which is not at all what is being tried).
Not my intention to downplay. I think it’s less likely they’ll bother repairing this E-3 if they’re set on getting new toys, it’s probably about as expensive. And considering it’s Boeing I don’t expect it to be quick with either option
Remember when George W. Bush was the dumbest war criminal/POTUS?
Truly, we misunderestimated him.
He set the bar really low, yet somehow, America has managed to limbo right under it. Twice.
What concerns me is that they can go even lower than Trump.
