The Boeing E-3D Sentry plane arrives in our country, the first of three that were acquired by the Chilean Air Force (FACh) from the United Kingdom during the month of January of this year, under the administration of Sebastian Pinera.
The ZH 103 model (c/n 24111/1004), known as “Happy” in the RAF (Royal Air Force), was the first specimen that landed at the Pudahuel Air Base, after taking off on Monday, July 25, after being given discharged in September 2021 by the RAF.
The other specimen acquired took off on July 26 and is scheduled to land in Chile tomorrow (June 28) and is a ZH 106 model (c/n 24114/1011), which the RAF baptized as “Grumpy” , was also discharged in September last year.
The planes -which traveled with a British crew- when leaving the United Kingdom made stops in the Azores Islands, to then make a second stop in Panama, to finally reach Chile and reinforce the flight line of the FACh’s Group No. 10, according to the media Defense.com.
There is still no certainty as to how the third unit will arrive in our country, which will play the role of a source of spare parts for the other two planes. It is the ZH 101 model (c/n 24109/993), called “Doc” by the RAF and which was decommissioned in October 2021.
avant-garde
The purchase of these avant-garde models was for 50 million dollars and their special feature is to improve Chile’s capabilities in the area of strategic depth in our territory, unlike the Boeing EB-707 Condor, who will be discharged once they are complete the new fleet.
