US Fixed Wing Asset Tracking Masterlist

The mission is simple. Airborne Warning And Control System, sometimes also called Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C). The goal is to provide aircraft with long range radar to monitor contacts up to 400Km away and identify if a contact is a friend or foe. It allows fighter aircraft to remain as quiet as possible from an EW perspective before engaging with bandits. You may seem the refered to as MAGIC or OVERLORD in various places on the internet.

US Air Force info page
NATO's info page

The USAF have 32 in the fleet with one for testing. I count 31 based off of IACO hex codes.

NATO have 14. I count 16 total based off of IACO hex codes.

The E-4B is the National Airborne Operations Center and is designed as survivable command post for the National Command Authority, specifically the POTUS and successors such as VPOTUS, SECDEF and successors. As well as this mission it serves as the the out of CONUS transport for the SECDEF. Based at Offutt Air Force Base as part of 1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron of the 595th Command and Control Group who operate a total of 4 aircraft.

US Air Force info page

The E-6 preforms the TACMO mission where it acts as a survivable communication link between the National Command Authority and the nuclear triad where it can relay orders as part of Operation Looking Glass and if need be, use the Airborne Launch Control System to fire ICBM's. Based out of Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, as part of the Strategic Communications Wing One, it is split into two squadrons, VQ-3 "Ironmen" and VQ-4 "Shadows" who operate a total of 16 aircraft.

US Navy info page

JSTARS or Joint STARS (Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System) is an airborne battle management, C2 and ISR platform designed to support ground an air operations by providing commanders with an accurate picture of the battlefield. Based out of Robins Air Force Base as part of the 461st Air Control Wing, it is split into two squadrons, 12th Airborne Command and Control Squadron and the 16th Airborne Command and Control Squadron. As well as the Air National Guard's also operate the the E-8 out of Robins Air Force Base as part of the 116th Air Control Wing operating a single squadron with the 128th Airborne Command and Control Squadron. In total, 17 aircraft are operational.

US Air Force info page

*AE1498 twitter is broken. Fix later

The Open Skies Treaty allows participant nations to fly pre planed overflights of another participants nation and take photos potential military developments that a nation may see as threatening with the goal that seeing such forces up front and sharing the data that was found, this can lead to threat reduction. The OC-0135's fly this mission. Based at Offutt Air Force Base as part of the 55th Operations Group in the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron with the wider O/RC/TC/W-135 fleet where a total of 2 are operated.

US Air Force info page

The greatest aircraft known to man, with the coolest mission possible! Chasing ballistic missile launches! Using MASINT with an array of optical cameras and SIGINT with an array of antenna's it can accurately gather range data and ensure treaty compliance. Based at Offutt Air Force Base as part of the 55th Operations Group in the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron with the wider O/RC/TC/WC-135 fleet where a total of 3 are operated. In the past, several were forward deployed to Shemya Air Force Base in Alaska but since the end of the Cold War this has ceased and today you generally find one forward deployed to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Japan.

US Air Force info page

The Combat Sent is the god of ELINT. With it's vast array of sensors, it locate, identify and analyse electronic emissions from air, land and sea forces. Based at Offutt Air Force Base as part of the 55th Operations Group in the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron with the wider O/RC/TC/WC-135 fleet where a total of 2 are operated.

US Air Force info page

Rivet Joint is broadly similar to the Combat Sent, but it's main goal is SIGINT. While it can also do ELINT, it's not it's main task because one of the major uses of Rivet Joint is the near real time relay of intelligence for analysis. Based at Offutt Air Force Base as part of the 55th Operations Group in the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron with the wider O/RC/TC/WC-135 fleet where a total of 17 are operated.

US Air Force info page

The all weather, high altitude, ELINT, SIGINT and MASINT machine! Built for the Cold War to get intelligence where it could get imagery when there was no other way to flying today still and still doing it's work. Based out of Beale Air Force Base as part of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing where 26 are operated in 3 squadrons, the 1st, 5ht and 99th Reconnaissance Squadron's, with forward deployments in RAF Akrotiri, Osan Air Base and Anderson Air Force Base. NASA operates 2 ER-2S variants out of the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.

US Air Force info page

Affectionately called the "Nuke Sniffer"! It works by catching radionuclide in paper filters that can be analysed to determine what a given nuclear weapon was made from and potentially also what ratios of them elements were used. It also works to ensure compliance of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and can help detect emissions of nuclear materials from civilian and military sources that make it into the atmosphere. Based at Offutt Air Force Base as part of the 55th Operations Group in the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron with the wider O/RC/TC/WC-135 fleet where a total of 2 are operated.

Currently, the fleet is in a state of flux. As of the 13th of Nov 2020, 62-3582 is officially retired and to be scrapped but three KC-135R's are being refitted to fill the capability gap. The details for the spesific's come from page 147 of Bob Archer's Super Snoopers

US Air Force info page