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J-STARS total force cooperation helps save lives

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Carolyn Viss
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Looking deep into hostile territory, modified Boeing 707s with multi-mode radar systems provide surveillance of territory behind enemy lines. 

The 7th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System is equipped with radar, communications, operations and control subsystems. 

It's detached here from the 116th Air Control Wing at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., and comprised of active-duty, guard, reserve, and sister-service members, said Capt. Stephen Grogan, the 7th EACCS senior director and a full-time Air National Guardsman. The team works together to detect ground movement and provide Army Common Ground Stations with moving target indicators. 

"If I find something with a suspicious track, I cross-cue it to see if it's a viable threat," said Senior Airman Jimmy Cooper, 7th EACCS airborne intelligence technician. 

Equipped with 18 operator work stations, the aircraft orbits for 10 to 12 hours, Captain Grogan said. Each of the six sections - including communications techs, airborne mission systems specialists, surveillance, operations, intelligence, and Army specialists - has a key role in the overall success of each sortie.
 
"There's a lot of coordination going on," Airman Cooper said. "Everything flows together: information is going from the ground to the aircraft and even off board to other aircraft and [sister services] ... and every person has a special function that's vital to the mission." 

"Every time this unit walks out the door, we do it as a blended wing of Georgia Air National Guard, active duty and Army personnel," said Lt. Col. Bruce Darveau, 7th EACCS Crew 7. 

It's a great sense of satisfaction when the whole picture does come together, they agreed. 

"We can show up for the next mission brief and see the results ... when something we tracked turned out to be a cache of mortars," Captain Grogan said. Ground or air forces deal with threats based on surveillance information they provide. 

The Soldiers on board are also a key part of the information sharing process. As the "go-between" they provide near/real-time access to imagery that enables members on the ground to react to what's going on in the area of operations, said Army Sergeant 1st Class Michael Novotny, 7th EACCS airborne target sensors supervisor. 

All of that information-passing is possible because of the unique radar systems on the Boeing 707, said Tech. Sgt. James Hanchett, 379th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron airborne surveillance radar maintainer. 

"The 707 repurchase was cost-effective [for the Air Force]," he said. "They took a proven platform and installed an advanced radar system to the aircraft" that can provide targeting and battle management data to Joint STARS operators using secure data links. 

His job as a maintainer of those surveillance systems is important because "if the radar system fails, people on the ground suffer," said the 19-year Air Force veteran of the Air Force. 

But it's not just the air and ground crews passing information back and forth that makes the Joint STARS team successful - there's a whole other team of maintainers, crew chiefs, hydraulics, and engine specialists, and guidance and control specialists who get the aircraft off the ground. 

"It literally takes an 'army' of about 50 people to get the plane off the ground," Sergeant Hanchett said. "My system is useless on the ground, so we rely on every single person to make the mission happen. Many times, we've gotten feedback from up range, saying 'Thanks, J-Stars ... you saved us again.'"