Sentinel completes Afghan mission from Middle East base

The deployment actually happened late last year, providing imagery of a wide area of territory and operating in collaboration with air assets and ground forces, Gp Capt Harry Kemsley, commanding officer of the Royal Air Force's 5(AC) Sqn was reported as saying to industry website Flightglobal.com

Two of the heavily modified Bombardier Global Express business jets, which form part of the UK's new airborne stand-off radar (ASTOR) system, were deployed to a base in the Middle East for the trial, held in November and December, which totalled 19 missions.

The Raytheon Systems-developed aircraft used their dual-mode radars to capture more than 107h of ground moving target indication (GMTI) data and almost 150 detailed synthetic aperture radar images, says Kemsley. The latter included surveying routes and compounds of interest, while the GMTI mode was used to collect information such as "pattern of life" intelligence.

A RAF ASTOR Sentinel