The Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System, or J-STARS, is full of ironies.
The cost of the program is a whopping $366 million an aircraft, yet each J-STARS aircraft is a remodeled passenger 707 plane once used for commercial flights. This combat-tested plane has a kitchenette.
It’s a plane that was originally designed to fight the Soviets, yet the aircraft is flying every day over Afghanistan and Iraq, wars that scantly resemble the kind of battles it was built to fight.
“Our phone is ringing off the hook for more J-STARS and more crews,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Tom Grabowski, the 116th Air Control Wing director of plans and programs.
As combat ratchets up in Afghanistan, the J-STARS aircraft may be the Air Force’s most valuable weapon, charged with illustrating every square foot of Afghanistan’s most violent areas.
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