cleaning the windshields of their E-8 before a mission in
Iraq|alt= The two E-8A development aircraft were deployed in 1991 to participate in
Operation Desert Storm under the direction of USAF Colonel Harry H. Heimple, Program Director, even though they were still in development. The joint program accurately tracked mobile
Iraqi forces, including tanks and
Scud missiles. Crews flew developmental aircraft on 49 combat sorties, accumulating more than 500 combat hours and a 100% mission effectiveness rate. These Joint STARS developmental aircraft also participated in
Operation Joint Endeavor, a
NATO peacekeeping mission, in December 1995. While flying in friendly air space, the test-bed E-8A and pre-production E-8C aircraft monitored ground movements to confirm compliance with the
Dayton Peace Accords agreements. Crews flew 95 consecutive operational sorties and more than 1,000 flight hours with a 98% mission effectiveness rate. The
93d Air Control Wing, which activated 29 January 1996, accepted its first aircraft on 11 June 1996, and deployed in support of
Operation Joint Endeavor in October. The provisional 93d Air Expeditionary Group monitored treaty compliance while NATO rotated troops through
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first production E-8C and a pre-production E-8C flew 36 operational sorties and more than 470 flight hours with a 100% effectiveness rate. The wing declared initial operational capability 18 December 1997 after receiving the second production aircraft.
Operation Allied Force saw Joint STARS in action again from February to June 1999 accumulating more than 1,000 flight hours and a 94.5% mission-effectiveness rate in support of the U.S.-led
Kosovo War. The twelfth production aircraft, outfitted with an upgraded operations and control subsystem, was delivered to the USAF on 5 November 2001. On 1 October 2002, the 93d Air Control Wing (93 ACW) was "blended" with the
116th Bomb Wing in a ceremony at
Robins Air Force Base (AFB),
Georgia. The 116 BW was an
Air National Guard wing equipped with
B-1B Lancer bombers at Robins. As a result of a USAF reorganization of the B-1B force, all B-1Bs were assigned to active duty wings, resulting in the 116 BW lacking a current mission. The newly created wing was designated
116th Air Control Wing (116 ACW) and the 93 ACW was inactivated the same day. The 116 ACW constituted the first fully blended wing of active duty and Air National Guard airmen. The wing took delivery of the 17th and final E-8C on 23 March 2005. The E-8C Joint STARS routinely supported various taskings of the Combined Force Command Korea during the
North Korean winter exercise cycle and for the
United Nations enforcing resolutions on Iraq. In March 2009, a Joint STARS aircraft was damaged beyond economical repair when a test plug was left on a fuel tank vent, subsequently causing the fuel tank to rupture during in-flight refueling. There were no casualties but the aircraft sustained $25 million in damage. In September 2009,
Loren B. Thompson of the
Lexington Institute raised the question of why most of the Joint STARS fleet was sitting idle instead of being used to track insurgents in Afghanistan. Thompson states that the Joint STARS' radar has an inherent capacity to find what the Army calls 'dismounted' targets—insurgents walking around or placing roadside bombs. Thompson's neutrality has been questioned by some since Lexington Institute has been heavily funded by defense contractors, including Northrop Grumman. Trials of Joint STARS in Afghanistan were destined to develop tactics, techniques and procedures in tracking dismounted, moving groups of Taliban. In January 2011, Northrop Grumman's E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) test bed aircraft completed the second of two deployments to
Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, in support of the U.S. Navy Joint Surface Warfare Joint Capability Technology Demonstration to test its
network-enabled weapon architecture. The Joint STARS aircraft executed three Operational Utility Assessment flights and demonstrated its ability to guide anti-ship weapons against surface combatants at a variety of standoff distances in the NEW architecture. From 2001 to January 2011 the Joint STARS fleet flew more than 63,000 hours in 5,200 combat missions in support of Operations
Iraqi Freedom,
Enduring Freedom and
New Dawn. On 1 October 2011, the "blended" wing construct of the 116th Air Control Wing (116 ACW), combining Air National Guard and Regular Air Force personnel in a single unit was discontinued. On this date, the
461st Air Control Wing (461 ACW) was established at Robins AFB as the Air Force's sole active duty E-8 Joint STARS wing while the 116 ACW reverted to a traditional Air National Guard wing within the
Georgia Air National Guard. Both units share the same E-8 aircraft and will often fly with mixed crews, but now function as separate units. On 1 October 2019, JSTARS ended its continuous presence in the
United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) areas of responsibility. The 18–year deployment was the second-longest deployment in
U.S. Air Force history. In that time, the crews and aircraft flew 10,938 sorties, and 114,426.6 combat hours. On 11 February 2022, the first of four JSTARS out of the remaining 16 operational JSTARS was retired as detailed in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA). The plane (serial number 92-3289/GA) which was the first to arrive at Robins AFB in 1996 has now been transferred to the
309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. until the start of the
invasion in late February 2022.
Retirement The USAF began an analysis of alternatives (AOA) in March 2010 for its next generation GMTI radar aircraft fleet. The study was completed in March 2012 and recommended buying a new business jet-based
ISR aircraft, such as a version of the
Boeing 737, and the
Gulfstream 550. The Air Force said Joint STARS was expected to remain in operation through 2030. On 23 January 2014, the USAF revealed a plan for the replacement of the Boeing 707-based E-8C with a business-jet class aircraft that would be "significantly smaller and more efficient." The program was called Joint STARS Recap and planned for the aircraft to reach initial operating capability (IOC) by 2022, with separate contracts to be awarded for developing the aircraft, airborne sensor, battle management command and control (BMC2) system, and communications subsystem. During the fiscal 2019 budget rollout briefing it was announced that the Air Force would not move forward with an E-8C replacement aircraft. Rather than procure an aircraft, the USAF intended to use a network of satellites, aircraft sensors and ground radars as a cheaper and more resilient approach to collecting similar targeting and tracking data. The E-8C JSTARS began to be retired in February 2022, and flew its last operational sortie on 21 September 2023. The JSTARS performed its last flight on 15 November 2023. The aircraft conducted some 14,000 operational sorties, flying more than 141,000 hours over 32 years of service. ==Variants==