UK Hails Latest Spy Plane as a Success

The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has hailed the Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) system on the Sentinel R1 aircraft as a success after returning from trials in Afghanistan.

The aircraft is capable of operating for over nine hours at a time, during which it recognises and detects moving, static and fixed targets on the ground.

UK Minister for Defence, Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies said that the hugely sophisticated system successfully demonstrated what it could do in Afghanistan.

"The ASTOR system is a key element of the modern network-enabled battlefield, through which our forces can learn about the movement of enemy forces and react to prevent those threats to our troops," he said.

RAF's Innovative ASTOR Radar Now in Service

The British MoD has officially declared the innovative ASTOR (airborne stand-off radar) system in service onboard the RAF's Sentinel R1 aircraft.

The ASTOR System, which was developed under a £860m contract by Raytheon Systems, provides new all-weather intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capability to assist commanders on the battlefield.

ASTOR is also designed to communicate with a wide range of other systems and networks and is therefore at the heart of the UK's network-enabled capability (NEC).

Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies said that the advanced technology will deliver exceptional surveillance capabilities. "The ASTOR radar will link up with other intelligence-gathering equipment providing commanders with a complete picture of the ground allowing them to make immediate decisions on operations," Davies said.