The E-9A helps air-to-air weapon techniques analysis at Tyndall AFB offering vary clearance, telemetry help and information relay.
The U.S. Air Power’s E-9A Widget firing vary security and surveillance plane accomplished its first strip and paint job in over a decade throughout a collection of scheduled upgrades and upkeep, introduced on Jul. 31, 2025 the Air Power Life Cycle Administration Heart (AFLCMC). Led by the E-9A Program Workplace at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma, the multi-contractor effort noticed the work “accomplished on schedule and underneath finances, preserving operational timelines and sustaining plane efficiency and crew security.”
The dual-turboprop plane ensures missile take a look at zones over the Gulf of Mexico are away from civilian vessels throughout live-fire workouts, offering “real-time surveillance and telemetry information to vary security officers at Tyndall AFB, Florida.” This makes its “operational reliability a prime precedence,” the AFLCMC launch added.
Tyndall AFB can be one of many few bases with direct entry to the Japanese Gulf of Mexico, consequently internet hosting a majority of the large-scale workouts and coaching missions which contain reside air-to-air and anti-air missile fires. The realm is often known as the Eglin Gulf Check and Coaching Vary.
🖌️🛩️A cultured refresh for the E-9A!
The @AFLCMCoffical E-9A Program Workplace at Tinker AFB accomplished a full E-9A strip-and-paint – the primary in a decade.
The E-9A helps air-to-air weapons system eval, improvement & operational testing. pic.twitter.com/n4Ms5pnlUj
— U.S. Air Power Materiel Command ✈️ (@HQ_AFMC) August 4, 2025
E-9A Widget
Official photos launched by the Air Power present two E-9As, with serials 84-0048 and 84-0047. An earlier Dec. 17, 2020 launch concerning the plane stated the Division of Protection (DoD) operates solely two E-9As with the 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron (82nd ATRS) for Weapons System Analysis Program (WSEP).
The AFLCMC has nevertheless not talked about whether or not each or solely one of many airframes has undergone the repaint and improve and when this occurred, solely mentioning it was lately. One picture accompanying the X put up exhibits the Program Workplace’s civilian staff members standing earlier than the plane, whereas the opposite is from Aug. 26, 2008, and exhibits a facet view of 84-048 taking off from Tyndall AFB throughout a Fight Archer train.
The E-9A has to this point offered “help for air-to-air weapons system analysis, improvement and operational testing at Tyndall AFB” by figuring out if the waters are “away from civilian boaters and plane throughout reside missile launches and different hazardous army actions,” one other official USAF description stated. Its capabilities are airborne ocean floor surveillance, telemetry recording and relay, in keeping with the official factsheet.
Primarily based on the Bombardier (previously De Havilland) Sprint 8 , the plane was launched in 1980 as a bigger successor to the UV-18A Twin Otter, and a extra fuel-efficient and superior technological various to the RC-7 Airborne Reconnaissance – Low. The 53rd Weapons Analysis Group (WEG), that oversees the 82nd ATRS inside 53rd Wing at Eglin AFB, obtained the primary modified Sprint-8 in 1988.
Its ocean floor surveillance capabilities are supplied by a ventrally mounted AN/APS-143(V) -1 Airborne Sea Surveillance Radar, that may detect an individual in a life raft as much as 25 miles away. The plane additionally has one other distinguished mounted antenna array on the starboard (proper) facet, stretching from the rear to the entrance fuselage.
The antenna array is a part of the telemetry and relay capabilities, because the E-9A can downlink the telemetry information it receives from take a look at autos and drones to the vary security officer who coordinates with the testing squadron and the weapons launching platform for the live-fire exercise, the Air Power explains. Over the Horizon UHF (Extremely-Excessive Frequency) communications are used to switch the information to floor websites.
Among the many drone autos that may ship their telemetry to the E-9A are the BQM-167A Subscale Aerial Targets, operated by the 82nd ATRS and launched by contractors for apply live-firing and WSEPs. The 82nd ATRS radar operators relay details about civilian boats to the 81st Air Management Squadron (81st ACS) in reside missile exams throughout WSEPs.
Strip paint and improve
The AFLCMC stated the improve effort marks an achievement in “sustaining the mission readiness and longevity” of the specialised vary security aerial surveillance platform. The discharge quoted E-9A Program Workplace consultant Aaron Thomas, who stated the “high-visibility effort […] required shut coordination and execution.”
The multi-contractor effort noticed the E-9A Widget receiving the primary full plane repaint in over a decade, whereas seamlessly integrating all plane upgrades. “Moreover, the federal government was capable of reap the benefits of streamlining plane upkeep procedures for the removing and set up of vital mission parts,” added the service.
The profitable completion of the E-9A strip and paint not solely maintains the plane’s service life but additionally ensures the Air Power’s potential to conduct protected and efficient weapons testing over open waters. The character of the upgrades and the brand new techniques has additionally not been revealed.
The E-9A is prone to play a distinguished position in testing upcoming techniques just like the AIM-260 JATM (Joint Superior Tactical Missile). A take a look at article, presumably reproducing that missile, was noticed early in Might put in on the nostril of a CRJ700 utilized by Northrop Grumman as testbed plane.
The E-9A Widget has additionally supported different tasks just like the proof of idea for the superior cruise missile, the Navy Fjord missile program, and reside missile testing on the F-22 Raptor. “The mission of the E-9A Program Workplace is to develop, ship and maintain built-in capabilities for its home and international companions to help flying coaching operations, take a look at help and allied safety,” the AFLCMC assertion added.
Boat and vary security monitoring
Within the Dec. 17, 2020 launch that includes the E-9A Widget, the 325th Fighter Wing (325th FW) at Tyndall AFB confirmed photos from inside plane and outdoors the plane throughout an unnamed take a look at, depicting the atmosphere by which the E-9A operates.
The pictures confirmed an 82nd ATRS airborne mission techniques operator on the maritime radar’s console and an Air Power missile retriever ship used to clear waters of harmful particles. Moreover, an F-22 Raptor from the 325th FW and a U.S. Navy F/A-18E Tremendous Hornet assigned to the Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic at Naval Air Station Oceana have been additionally proven.
Earlier than fighter jets take off for air-to-air weapons system analysis, improvement and operational testing, the testers depend on the 82nd ATRS’s E-9A Widget and the 81st ACS. The 82nd ATRS evaluator pilot Gary Acree known as the Widget “vital for sea surveillance and relied on by many applications to get a shoot container for live-fire missions.”
USAF E-9A Widget 84-0048 #AE2211 as WIDGET48 arriving at BNA Nashville, TN. Enormous because of @SR_Planespotter for the heads up! #AvGeek #AviationPhotography pic.twitter.com/4hnN9eB2qy
— Mr. Discover Your Airplane 📷✈📡 (@MrFindYourPlane) Might 11, 2024
The 82nd ATRS radar operators relay the placement of civilian boats again to the 81st ACS, who present radar management and monitor the airspace. Airman 1st Class Aleah Ortega, 81st ACS command and management battle administration operator, stated the fixed real-time surveillance within the Gulf of Mexico protects the boats within the gulf and determines a protected shoot observe to fireplace the missiles.
E-9A Widget on show on the Area Coast Airshow! (84-0048) #potn pic.twitter.com/BYTJg75Nnu
— Ben Zuzolo (@PlaneSpotter3) April 4, 2019
The Airmen of the 81st ACS are additionally the one energetic responsibility Air Power squadron approved to supply battle administration command and management throughout live-fire air-to-air weapons evaluations.
