A U.S Air Force E-11A communication relay and gateway aircraft crashed in Deh Yak district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan. The E-11...
A U.S Air Force E-11A communication relay and gateway aircraft crashed in Deh Yak district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan.
The E-11A BACN (Battlefield Airborne Communications Node) allows communication between warfighters that are operating on different networks and has the capability to relay info between air and ground forces.a communications system that provides radio connectivity across the battlespace for airborne and surface operators.
Pictures and Video footage shows the burned fuselage of the aircraft with serial number 11-9358.
There is no information regarding the status of crew members on board, and the circumstances under which the aircraft came down. There are reports saying the aircraft was shot down and all the crew members on board have died.
The BACN was developed for consistent and effective form of communication in nearly any location or environment, significantly reducing the possibility of communication failure and increasing the rate of mission success.
The payload, or package of sensors carried on the E-11A, allows command and control to get in contact with the troops on the ground, and vice versa, to enable mission accomplishment.
The BACN was developed in direct response to communication shortfalls during Operation Red Wings, a joint U.S. military mission in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, in 2005. The operation became well known following the success of the book and subsequent movie “Lone Survivor” by Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy SEAL and the only surviving member of the mission.
Due to Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain and lack of existing communication infrastructure, serious communication challenges prevented the four-man SEAL patrol from effectively establishing contact with their combat operations center, leaving them vulnerable to the attacks that claimed the lives of 19 special operations forces service members.
The E-11A is based on a Bombardier BD-700 business jet which has a 51,000 ft service ceiling and 12 hour endurance.
The BACN fleet comprises four E-11A manned systems and four Northrop Grumman EQ-4B Block 20 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft systems.
All of the US Air Force’s E-11A aircraft re assigned to the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron and operate solely out of Kandahar Airfield.
