BRITAIN’S air defence surveillance planes have been grounded amid safety fears.
Service chiefs ordered the RAF’s ageing Boeing Sentry E-3D jets not to fly
after cracks were found on a radar dome on Thursday.
All six planes and one training aircraft at RAF Waddington, Lincs, are
being checked.
The spy-in-the-sky jets were last used in action during Nato air strikes on
Libya last year.
The Ministry of Defence said: “A routine inspection on an E-3D aircraft at RAF
Waddington revealed a technical issue.
“Operations have been temporarily suspended pending further engineering
investigation.
“There is no loss of operational capability.”
A spokesman added: “I think it was a crack. They weren’t looking too healthy.
There are other ways of carrying out surveillance in the skies.”
Five Sentinel R1 aircraft will bear the brunt of guarding Britain from attack
until the E-3Ds are cleared to fly again.
The E-3D Sentry is recognisable by its rotating dome-shaped radar on top of
the fuselage.
The planes, which have been in service for more than 30 years, fly at 30,000
feet and can stay airborne for 11 hours.
They can detect enemy planes and ships at distances of nearly 300 miles. The
planes are flown by nos 8 and 23 Squadrons.