#e 3

This Day in Aviation History…

May 25, 1976

First Flight of the Boeing E-3 Sentry, a U. S. military airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft based on the Boeing 707 that provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications.

Trying to handle the E-3 successor with satellite constellations and drones isn't the wrong direction at all.

For near-peer scenarios where lumbering AWACS become necessary, their low survivability is the issue, and if it can fly, the need gets pretty thin.

Taiwan's going for a pragmatic, long-haul approach, so canceling the E-7 makes sense.

The U.S. Air Force's E-3s have been halved from a Cold War peak of 34 aircraft to 16 due to retirement from aging, and moreover, their availability rate is in the 50% range

In other words, only 8–9 aircraft are operational across the entire U.S. military, and since 6 of those have been concentrated in the Middle East, the remaining operational aircraft for the homeland, Europe, and Asia combined amount to just 2–3

If one aircraft were lost here, it would be necessary to bring an operational one from somewhere

From where?

USAF E-3 Sentry damaged in Iranian attack

On Mar. 27, 2026 multiple United States service members were wounded and several aircraft damaged, including an E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft and multiple KC-135 Stratotankers during an Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

According to Air & Space Forces Magazine, around 10 service members were wounded in the attack, including two with serious injuries. As reported by Defence Blog, the strike involved at least one missile impact on the base, along with the use of multiple drones.

theaviationgeekclub.com/usaf-e-3-sentry

As summer and baseball season are now in full swing, so is the H-1B filing season. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) completed its initial round of selections on April 1, prompting immigration practitioners and employers to get filings across the home plate by June 30. However, many potential employees are stuck in the dugout, so to speak, unable to get in the game, as they…