Engine failure resulted in the loss of one aircraft over Afghanistan in January 2020, and one of the EQ-4Bs was also lost.
withdrawal, after which they moved their theater operating base to Al Dhafra in Abu Dhabi. The Air Force assigned four aircraft to the 451st Tactical Airborne Gateway, later re-styled as the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron and operated from Kandahar in Afghanistan from 2010 until the U.S. Originally designated RC-700 in its test phase, the BACN-equipped Global 6000 was redesignated as the E-11A. A typical application would involve linking ground forces with a close-support aircraft in difficult terrain, allowing the passage of critical voice and data between the two without relying on satellite communications. The BACN provides a bridge between numerous users employing various types of occasionally incompatible communication systems. The UAVs have deployed lately during Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq and Syria. A BACN payload was also fitted into five Northrop Grumman EQ-4B high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicles. Three more Globals were outfitted with the system. It was subsequently tested, and then fielded, in a Global 6000, the business jet selected for its 51,000-foot maximum altitude and 12-hour endurance. The aircraft acts as a link that can overcome line-of-sight communications issues caused by mountainous terrain and other obstacles.ĭescribed as a “Wi-Fi in the sky” system and developed as an urgent solution to problems encountered in Afghanistan, a BACN payload first flew aboard a NASA WB-57 high-altitude testbed. Air Force’s E-11A, a highly modified Bombardier Global 6000 business jet that operates in the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) role. One of the rarest visitors to the 2021 Dubai Airshow is the U.S.