ol Ball of Fire BALL OF FIRE QUARTERLY EXPRESS Newsletter of the 93rd Bombardment Group 2nd Air ion, 8th Air Force, Hardwick, England Yol. 6, No. 2 Summer, 1998 Vice President, 2ADA Y. President Membership Alfred Asch Floyd H. Mabee 6205 Meadow Court 28 Hillside Avenue Rockville, MD 20852 Dover, NJ 05801 (301) 881-1376 (201) 366- 5916 WR - ** U,S.AIR FORCE Sia ies The above pictured E-8C aircraft is now ‘operational and being flown by the 93° Air Control Wing, It is a modified version of a commercial 707-300 series from the Northrop Grumman Corporation. An official version of its capabilities reads as follows: “Real time battle management information is provided to operators inside the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System STARS) aircraft. Using a powerful surveillance and target acquisition radar system with high-speed data processors capable of performing over 600 million operations per second, up to 17 Army and Air Force operators can distinguish moving or fixed targets from other types of objects on the ground and quickly relay that information to other airbome or ground commanders for action.” Es ‘The Joint STARS program traces its ancestry back to the Army's Stand-off Target Acquisition ‘System and the Air Forces Pave Mover programs from the early 1970's These projects were attempts to locate and target hostile assets, both fixed and mobile, from long range. Tests conducted with these systems, the army using UH-1 helicopters transmitting to mobile ground stations2 and the Air Force using F-111 fighters led to the eventual combined effort known as Joint Stars Created in May 1982, the Army Communications Electronics Command at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, oversaw the development of the Joint Stars system The E-8C is equipped with phased array radar, signal and data processing equipment, and operations and control subsystems. The 24 foot phased array antenna is housed in a 40 foot, canoe like, faired radome, mounted ventrally just aft of the nose landing gear. The canoe provides the aircraft’s most distinguishing feature. The radar can operate in a wide area mode, a moving target indicator mode or a synthetic aperture radar mode. The aircraft has 18 operator work stations. Each station is equipped with an advanced digital display processor. Communications systems include highly secure, jam resistant Surveillance and Control Data Link for transmission to Army ‘ground station modules. Furthermore, the aircraft also carries two Joint Tactical Distribution System terminals. Although a new weapons system, Joint STARS has already been proven in combat. During operation DESERT STORM, two prototype E-8A’s participated in the battle of Khafji. The Joint STARS aircraft provided real- time pictures of Iraqi movements, allowing air strikes to disrupt Iraqi formations and coalition forces to recapture the town. The E-8A’s flew 49 operational missions during that deployment altitude is normally 31,000 ft. with an optimum radar operating altitude of 34,000-42,000 ft Optimum orbit speed is 390-510 KTS (ground speed) with most of our operations at 31,000 ft ‘The interior of the ainplane is divided into five pressurized compartments on two decks. The flight deck and mission crew compartment on the main deck contain all crew stations. A crew rest area is provided in the mission crew compartment Runway requirements depend upon aircraft ‘operating gross weight, airfield elevation, pressure altitude and airfield temperature. Ideally the E-8C needs a 10,000 ft or greater runway, however it can operate from an 8,000 ft runway, but mission endurance is severely restricted unless tanker support is available Motorola, Nortvop Grumman, and SAIC, ae teamed to pursue the U.S. ‘Army's Joint STARS Common Ground Staton (CaS) program. The CGS Is the latest system in the Army's ground station evolution, Using secure data tinks, the system Is in constant communication withthe Jlnt STARS. airborne platform and provides realtime suvellance, targeting. recone. During operation Joint Endeavor, an E-8A and an E-8C were deployed to Germany to assist NATO forces entering Bosnia-Herzegovina to ‘monitor the Dayton Peace Accords. Based at Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany the 4500" Joint Stars Squadron (Provisional) flew 95 missions supporting Implementation Force's troops. In addition to monitoring indigenous forces in Bosnia, the E-8C’s were used to monitor suspected mass ‘rave sites to support war crimes investigations, E-8C Performance ‘The Boeing 707-300 series aircraft have a maximum takeoff weight of 336,000 pounds. The ‘maximum in-flight gross weight is 33 1,000 pounds and maximum takeoff fuel load is 146,000 pounds. ‘The optimum air refueling altitude is 20,000 to 26,000 ft. The time to climb (sea level to initial cruise altitude) and time from takeoff to “Ops Normal” is usually 45 minutes, The initial cruising, ‘ance Intrmatin, and Imagery to battlefield commanders Ed: A planned visit with my son and family in Georgia last December coincided with an invitation from T/Sgt Lee, 93° Historian, 10 visit Robins Air Base and attend the Initial Operating Ceremony of the 93ACW. My son and I were both given a tour of the airbase, by T/Sgt Lee, and attended the Ceremony. T/Sgt Lee was an exceptional host and introduced my son and I 10 many of the Officers and enlisted personnel. My A-2 flight jacket with 8 AF, 93" BG and 409" Sq. patches drew many comments and questions about WWI We were also able to walk through this exceptional aircraft. This pressurized aircraft with all its advantages gave me the feeling that ‘our generation may have been born some 50+ ‘years 100 early,Joint STARS No other system exists, even as a prototype, that can achieve the powerful synergies that are essential for n to match the ground surveillance and battle effective joint operations in peace and war management capabilities of the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System — Joint STARS. The unprecedented and unique surveillance and battle manage- ‘ment capabilities possessed by the Joint STARS system are derived from the perform: the U.S. Air Force's E-8C — with its Radar, Operations & Control and Communicat Subsystems — and the U.S. Army's Ground Station Modules. The demonstrated performance of Joint STARS meets or exceeds the requirements of both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. The shared situational awareness possible with Joint STARS allows air and ground commanders to ice of ircraft (Operators at workstations on board the E-8C aircraft. Exploiting its open architecture design, the capability of the production E-8C aircraft has been dramatically improved since the Gulf War. The E-8C possesses eight more operator workstations for a total of 18 and the processing speed of these workstations is 200 times faster. Computer memory has grown from three to 60 gigabytes, Radar resolution is much better as is post-mission data exploitation.