The Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out its final mission with the Raytheon Sentinel R.Mk 1 (R1) on February 25, bringing almost 13 years of operational UK military service to an end.
Having spent most of its operational career supporting military campaigns over the Middle East, the Sentinel’s last mission was much closer to home. Operated as always by No V (Army Cooperation) Squadron, the aircraft – serial ZJ694 (c/n 9135), callsign ‘ASCOT 7303’ – departed RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, to conduct its final mission over Eastern Europe. During the flight, the platform loitered over the Baltic, and in Lithuanian and Polish airspace to monitor Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and Belarus.
![Sentinel R1 [MoD Crown Copyright] 1](https://fullfatthings-keyaero.b-cdn.net/sites/keyaero/files/inline-images/Sentinel%20R.Mk%201%20ZJ690%20over%20Lincoln_MOD_45149905.jpg)
Based on Bombardier’s Global Express business jet family, the first Sentinel R1 was delivered to RAF Waddington in January 2007, and formally handed over in March. Five aircraft were acquired to provide the UK with an Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) and long-range, wide-area battlefield surveillance capability. The platform was also responsible for delivering critical intelligence and target tracking information to …
