| Aircraft | E-2C "Hawkeye" (Grumann Aerospace Corp.) |
| Type | Airborne early warning, command and control |
| Year | January 1964 E-2A |
| Engine | Two Allison T-56-A427 turboprop engines :5,000 shaft horsepower each |
| Wingspan | 80 feet 7 inches (28 meters) |
| Length | 57 feet 6 inches (17.5 meters) |
| Height | 18 feet 3 inches (5.6 meters) |
| Weight | Max. gross, take-off: 53,000 lbs (23,850 kg) 40,200 lbs basic (18,090 kg) |
| Max. speed | 300+ knots (345 miles, 552 km. per hour) |
| Ceiling | 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) |
| Crew | 5 |
| Armament | None
|
The E-2C Hawkeye is the Navy's all-weather,
carrier-based tactical warning and control system aircraft.
The Hawkeye provides all-weather airborne early warning
and command and control functions for the carrier battle group.
Additional missions include surface surveillance coordination, strike
and interceptor control, search and rescue guidance and
communications relay. An integral component of the carrier air wing,
the E-2C uses computerized sensors to provide early warning, threat
analyses and control of counteraction against air and surface targets.
Carrier-based E-2C Hawkeyes directed F-14
Tomcat fighters flying combat air patrol during the two-carrier battle
group joint strike against terrorist-related Libyan targets in 1986.
E-2Cs and AEGIS cruisers, working together, provided total air mass superiority over the American fleet.
More recently, E-2Cs provided the command and control for successful operations during the Persian Gulf War, directing both
land attack and combat air patrol missions over Iraq and providing control for the shoot-down of two Iraqi MIG-21 aircraft by
carrier-based F/A-18s in the early days of the war.
E-2 aircraft also have worked extremely effectively with U.S. law enforcement agencies in drug interdictions.
Source-United States Navy