ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. — The last JSTARS E-8C jet is getting ready to leave Robins Air Force Base, marking the end of a nearly three-decade mission. The plane and its people have provided immeasurable support to military troops all over the globe through surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
The active duty 461st Air Control Wing and National Guard 116th Air Control Wing make up JSTARS, which stands for Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.
Colonel Chris Dunlap, Commander of the 461st, says the U.S. military first realized the capabilities of the E-8C and technology on board during the Gulf War. Then, the former 93rd Air Control Wing further developed the JSTARS concept at Robins in 1996.
"It really matured itself inside Afghanistan and Iraq. It's really been the lynchpin that tied the command and control community to the intelligence community," says Col. Shelton.
In the early 200s, the blended mission emerged with the 116th and 461st. Commander of the 116th Colonel Chris Dunlap says it was a first of its kind in the Air Force.
He says, "There was no template. There was no instructions. There was no guidance. They just said, 'We need to get after this mission, and we know there's lots of experience in both components, and we'd like to bring them together.'"
Col. Dunlap says they figured out how to work together and accomplished much for our nation's military.
"We've got just over 141,000 combat hours," he says. "We also relocated ourselves to seven different what we call forward operating locations across the globe."
That includes surveillance and information-gathering missions in Iraq, Libya, and even a major drug raid over international waters off of Florida.
"It was actually this airframe that had the largest radar-detected, Air Force-assisted drug bust in that type of construct," says Col. Shelton.
As the JSTARS mission comes to a close, four new missions will land at Robins Air Force Base.
The last of the 16 JSTARS E-8C planes will take off from Robins on Nov. 6 and head to a place commonly referred to as 'the boneyard' in Arizona.