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originally posted by: stosh64
a reply to: Ranger351
I watched it fly by a bunch of times yesterday as I was outside gardening.
I am about 4 miles north of the NFAFB in Lewiston.
It was a twin engine prop plane With the awacs looking radar on top.
I have never seen it here before. Saw an osprey last year, that was cool.
I will await our resident aviation experts opinions.
originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Xcathdra
Saudi Arabia also has a few. You see them and the NATO aircraft up at Boeing Field all the time. Occasionally even an Air Force aircraft up there.
The NATO AWACS are fun because they play well in a couple of conspiracies. The aircraft belong to NATO, and are housed in Germany, but "belong" to Luxembourg, so that they technically meet the requirements for being a NATO member.
Both NATO and the US are starting to talk about replacing the E-3, possibly with something along the lines of the Wedgetail. And by starting, I mean that someone high up finally realized that the E-3 is based on the 707, and the 707 hasn't been built in decades, which means parts are getting scarce. To combat that, they're retiring several us airframes to the Boneyard, to part out for the rest of the fleet. Being that the Block 40/45 upgrade just entered service in 2014, it'll be at least 10-15 years before we even start a replacement program IMO.