The Boeing E-3 Sentry has been the eye in the sky of the US Air Force for nearly as long as the service has flown jet-powered aircraft. Once a fleet of 31 jets, the number of these sophisticated Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) airframes has dwindled to half that number. The E-3 Sentry has continued to serve despite its obsolescence and very low rate of readiness for some time now because the only proposed replacement programs are nearly as prohibitively expensive as the cost to upgrade the Sentries.
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