No. VIII Squadron RAF

No. VIII Squadron (8 Sqn) of the Royal Air Force operates the Boeing E-3D Sentry from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire.

The RAF AWACS fleet is made up of seven E-3Ds, with the UK designation Sentry AEW1 and the aircraft are pooled between 8 Sqn and No. 23 Squadron

History

8 Squadron was formed at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1915, but soon moved to France, where it spent the rest of the war in the Army Cooperation role. After the war, the squadron was moved to the middle east, including spells in Egypt and Iraq. The squadrons association with the Middle East gave rise to the adoption of the Arabian dagger as the unit's badge. 8 Sqn continued to be based in and around the region up until 1971, when it moved to RAF Kinloss, the first time it had been based in the UK since 1915.

The squadron moved to the AEW/AWACS role on Avro Shackletons at Kinloss in 1971, moving to RAF Lossiemouth in 1973, where it stayed until its disbandment in 1991. The squadron was then receiving the first of the E-3Ds at its present home of RAF Waddington.

Almost immediately upon becoming operational on the Sentry in 1991, the squadron was deployed on operations over the Balkans. The squadron, along with its sister 23 Sqn, have operated the Sentry over Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.