Air Force communications personnel took a hard look at their operations and made changes that took “help me” response times from 30 minutes to around “instantaneous,” says Capt. Jeff Devine Jr., information systems flight commander for the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron. The unit pulled all their customer service centers into one location and installed an overhead electronic display—with numerous screens visible to all technicians—showing every critical comm system. The result, says Devine, is that comm sometimes shows up before the customer knows there’s a problem. And that, he explained, means the chance of shutting down air operations is very low.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.