The US Air Force has withdrawn its E-8s from combat operations despite a lack of clarity on what will replace their capability.
THE US AIR Force has called time on an 18-year-long deployment for the Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (STARS) to the Command area of responsibility (AOR) — the second-longest deployment in the service’s history. The final deployed E-8 departed Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, on October 1, 2019, with Col Konata Crumbly, the 116th Air Control Wing (ACW) commander, at the controls. ‘It is difficult to measure the kind of success our ‘Team JSTARS’ airmen and soldiers achieved over the last 18 years. It can only be measured in lives not lost,’ he said.
