US Air Force spends $1.2B to replace its Cold War-era E-3 Sentry AWACS fleet.

This post comes from Interesting Engineering. “According to an official press release, Boeing has been awarded a $1.2 billion contract by the US Air Force to develop new variants of the company’s E-7 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft to replace America’s Cold War fleet of 31 E-3 “Sentry” AWACS early warning aircraft.

The E-3 “Sentry,” based on the Boeing 707, entered service in 1977 and became part of the air fleets of the United States, Britain, France, NATO, and others during the Cold War, serving as flying observation and air command centers to detect hostile aircraft, with each Sentry able to monitor air traffic over an area the size of Poland.” Click here to read the rest of this article.