Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System
(Joint STARS / JSTARS)
The Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) is a long-range, air-to-ground surveillance system designed to locate, classify and track ground targets in all weather conditions. While flying in friendly airspace, the joint Army-Air Force program can look deep behind hostile borders to detect and track ground movements in both forward and rear areas. It has a range of more than 150 miles (250 km). These capabilities make Joint STARS effective for dealing with any contingency, whether actual or impending military aggression, international treaty verification, or border violation.
Specifications
Aircraft Boeing 707-300 series aircraft, modified by Northrop Grumman Designation E-8A for two prototype aircraft Designation E-8C for one test aircraft and all production aircraft Primary Function: Ground Surveillance
Contractor: Northrop Grumman Corp. Power Plant: Four JT3D engines Length: 152'11" (46.6 m); Height: 42'6" (12.9 m); Weight: 171,000 pounds (77,565 Kg)-- Empty
155,000 pounds (70,307 Kg)-- Max Fuel
336,000 pounds (152,408 Kg)-- Max Gross
Wingspan: 145'9" (44.4 m); Speed: .84 Mach Date Deployed: 1996 Inventory: 17 production aircraft Service ceiling 42,000 feet Range: 11 hours -- 20 hours with air refueling Unit Cost: $225 million Crew Standard mission crew of 21 comprising 18 operators and 3 flight crew Long endurance crew of 34 comprising 28 operators and 6 flight crew Radar 24 feet length antenna, side looking, phased array. Housed in canoe shaped radome under forward fuselage aft of the nose landing gear, Scanned electronically in azimuth, Scanned mechanically in elevation from either side of the aircraft. Radar operating modes Wide area surveillance Fixed target indication Synthetic aperture radar Moving target indicator Target classification Radar processors Three load sharing programmable processors each processor containing five high speed, fixed point distributed processors Radar operation and control system One navigation and self defense workstation Seventeen identical operator workstations Functions of operator workstations: flight path planning and monitoring generation and display of cartographic and hypsographic map data. Radar management, surveillance and threat analysis, radar data review, time of arrival calculation, jammer location, distance and azimuth calculation, pairing of weapons and targets, and other functions Communications digital data links Surveillance and control data link (SCDL) for transmission to mobile ground stations Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) for tactical air navigation (TACAN) operation and Tactical Data Information Link-J (TADIL-J) generation and processing Satellite communications link (SATCOM) Voice Communications Twelve encrypted UHF radios Two encrypted HF radios Three VHF encrypted radios with provision for Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) Multiple intercom nets
Related Resources
- E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, @ GlobalSecurity.org
- Joint STARS Support to Special Operations Command Captain Bruce A. Niedrauer Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin October-December 96
- Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR: Joint STARS in the Balkans Captain Kristin M. Baker Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin October-December 96
- Joint STARS in Bosnia -- Too Much Data--Too Little Intel? by Lieutenant Colonel Collin A. Agee Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin July-September 96
- Joint STARS: The Warfighter's Window to the Battlefield by Lieutenant Colonel Kevin C. Peterson and Major Phillip Basinger Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin July-September 96
