E-8 JSTARS Moves to Museum of Aviation at Warner Robins

by Austin Kubacak

On Sunday, July 16th, 2023, the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, Georgia received its latest exhibit, Northrop Grumman E-8C JSTARS 00-2000. U.S. Air Force maintenance personnel from the 116th and 461st Air Control Wings towed the partially disassembled battlefield surveillance, command and control aircraft to the museum, making their way down Highway 247 from the E-8’s longterm home at nearby Robins Air Force Base (AFB). The joint operation between the U.S. Air Force, Georgia Department of Transportation, and local law enforcement ensured that the relocation effort went smoothly, with the roughly 4 mile journey taking roughly 4 hours to complete. The move started at around 7 AM and as the aircraft approached the major intersection in front of the base’s main gate, a crowd of 50 or so onlookers gathered to watch. Although not a major crowd, and without fanfare, the excitement they expressed at seeing this enormous and important aircraft in such an unusual context easily made the occasion bigger than it seemed.

There were a few minor hinderances to the aircraft’s progress on its route, primarily from traffic lights and roadway signs which needed moving to provide additional clearance. Overall, the entire process went smoothly and safely for all concerned. The bigger challenge was getting the jet to the museum before the summer heat became too oppressive; the morning cool faded quickly once the sun rose over the trees!

Remarkably, the biggest potential obstacle ended up being surmounted without much fuss at all. This involved the transition from the highway to its on-ramp which leads out of the base. The Museum of Aviation is located beside the southernmost gate at Robins AFB. The overpass which crosses the highway is too short to allow the nearly 20-foot-tall aircraft to pass safely underneath. With minimal room for error due to the trees and telephone poles flanking each side of the on-ramp, personnel were able to complete this tricky maneuver successfully without causing any damage to either property or aircraft. The move was complete by about 11:00 AM, with the E-8 safely ensconced within its new home.

Robins AFB has long-served as the home for the JSTARS program, which is presently being phased out of Air Force service. Airframe retirements began in February 2022, with the  departure of E-8C 92-3289 for the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. E-8C 00-2000, however, was selected for display at the Museum of Aviation, a branch of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force; it is currently the only JSTARS aircraft slated for preservation. At its retirement this May, the aircraft concluded a nearly 55-year history of operations. The airframe itself began life as a Boeing 707-396C airliner, making its first flight on March 4th, 1969 from the factory in Everett, Washington. It began service with Wardair Canada as CF-ZYP later that year.

Wardair sold the aircraft to an Austrian leasing company, which registered it as OE-IDA during 1978. The U.S. Government seized the aircraft in Houston, Texas during May, 1981 after its attempted use in smuggling arms to South Africa, then under international sanctions for its government’s brutal apartheid regime. The aircraft ended up stored in the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB for a few years before the U.S. Air Force acquired it in August, 1985. A crew from the 89th Airlift Wing ferried the airframe to an E-Systems facility in Greenville, Texas, where the company converted into a VC-137C VIP transport with serial number 85-6973. The 89th Airlift Wing took delivery of the aircraft in May, 1990, where it became a backup for the Air Force One role, and a primary for use as Air Force Two, amongst other duties.

In 1999, the VC-137C joined the 552nd Air Wing at Tinker AFB near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for use as an E-3 AWACS aircrew trainer. However, this assignment did not last long, as in February, 2000 the Air Force flew the VC-137 to the Northrop Grumman facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana for conversion into a JSTARS platform. It rejoined the Air Force in this new role as serial 00-2000 during February, 2003, serving with the Georgia Air National Guard at Robins AFB.

E8C 00-2000 would remain there with the Georgia National Guard until its retirement this year. As already mentioned, the U.S. Air Force began retiring their then 16-strong fleet of E-8s in February last year, with the last examples due to stand down in Fiscal 2024. While the Air Force had originally planned to continue the JSTARS mission with a different, smaller airframe based on a commercial business jet, it cancelled those plans in 2019. Instead, the E-8s will be replaced by Northrop Grumman’s E-11 Battlefield Airborne Communication Node (BACN), which bases the platform on the Bombardier Global 6000 business jet. The first of these new aircraft arrived this April.