Guarded response

The first Sentinel R Mk I aircraft to have been completed in the UK has left Raytheon's Broughton facility in north Wales for Greenville, Texas, where it will join the US-built aircraft to undertake formal flight testing.

The Sentinel R Mk I, based on a Bombardier Global Express business jet, forms part of the Ministry of Defence's Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) long-range surveillance system. The first ASTOR aircraft was modified and integrated in the US while the remaining four Sentinels are being modified by Raytheon Systems, the prime contractor, in the UK.

Raytheon said that when it enters service the MoD's ASTOR system will be the most advanced of its type worldwide. Each aircraft will be equipped with dual-mode (synthetic aperture radar and moving target indicator) radar and workstations where the mission management and imagery can be exploited then transmitted to the various brigades and divisional/joint-level ASTOR ground stations by datalink.