The mocking title said it all: "AWACS: The Plane That Would Not Die."

At least the title was accurate. The E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System certainly would not die-and for good reasons. Far from turning out to be an expensive boondoggle, the 707 with the huge rotating radar dome ("a mushroom with elephantiasis," sneered TNR) has become a bedrock of US military power.

Twenty-five years ago, on March 24, 1977, Boeing delivered the first basic production version of the E-3 Sentry to Air Force officials at Tinker AFB, Okla. The ensuing quarter century has shown the AWACS to be indispensable, often the first system to go into action when a threat arises and the last to leave once operations cease.

The AWACS has turned out to be even more important than envisioned by its Air Force proponents. It was the first of a new class of systems that would give US forces a revolutionary edge in military capability. AWACS transcended its Cold War origin to help dominate the air wars over Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan, plus numerous other armed actions.

"I don't think any of us knew, as the world changed and missions evolved, that it would have such a continuing important role in multiple contingencies," said Col. Brian M. Waechter, AWACS system program director at Air Force Materiel Command's Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass.

The All-Seeing Eye

The E-3 has become the "eyes" and battle manager for virtually all Air Force combat operations. Its actual value can be measured in flying hours. The venerable B-52 bomber and KC-135 tanker are both nearly twice the age of the AWACS, in calendar years. Yet today's B-52 and KC-135 airframes have logged fewer flight hours, on average, than AWACS airframes.

"This platform has been heavily used since its inception," said Waechter.

The impetus to build a system such as AWACS came from the manner in which air forces learned to deal with electronic waves of radar in the years following World War II. Radar had been a revolutionary weapon in the struggle against Nazi Germany. Its ability to spot everything from an approaching bomber to the conning tower of a U-boat gave the Allies an edge in some of the most crucial battles of the war.

Yet one feature of radar is vulnerable to exploitation by opponents. Its beams travel only in straight lines. Thus aircraft that hug the ground can take advantage of the curvature of the Earth and penetrate close to ground transmitters before popping up to attack.

Fast forward to the 1960s. The miniaturization of electronics had reached a point at which Air Force officials came to believe that a single airframe could now transport a powerful search radar plus computers able to handle the difficult task of differentiating moving aircraft and ground clutter. The aircraft would also contain communication equipment sophisticated enough to give commanders a real-time view of the battlespace.

An artist's early concept drawing shows the saucer-shaped rotodome mounted on a forward-swept tail instead of on the fuselage, behind the wings.

On Dec. 22, 1965, Air Force Systems Command set up an Airborne Warning and Control System Program Office, and the AWACS effort officially was born.

From the start, the Pentagon treated development of the system as a high-priority effort. For example, AWACS had its own streamlined procurement rules, and its management came under the direct supervision of the Secretary of Defense.

The first question to settle was what airframe to select. There was a battle between the McDonnell Douglas DC-8, Lockheed EC-121, and Boeing 707. In July 1970, after a tough flyoff, Boeing won the prize.

The first test airframe flew in February 1972. After some 500 hours of radar test flights, Boeing selected the Westinghouse radar system over competing equipment manufactured by Hughes.

On Jan. 26, 1973, USAF announced it had given approval to Boeing to proceed with full-scale development of AWACS aircraft.

In these early years the main mission of AWACS, as defined in official military requirement documents, was to provide aid in the air defense of North America. It was to be a sort of early warning radar in the sky, alerting North American Aerospace Defense Command to the approach of Soviet bombers if and when they ever flew over northern latitudes toward US and Canadian territory.

Nixon's Second Look

By the early 1970s, however, the fast-flying Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with multiple nuclear warheads had surpassed Russia's manned bomber as the most dangerous strategic threat. Defense against a bomber strike was still important, but the Nixon Administration in 1973 decided to take another look at the AWACS program and assess its continued relevance.

This second look at AWACS produced yet another mission for the system. Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger decided that AWACS needed to be enhanced so it could serve not only as a strategic early warning aircraft but also as an airborne command-and-control center for tactical air operations, particularly in Western Europe.

This was not a particularly difficult technical change, recalled retired Gen. Lawrence A. Skantze, who was deputy for the E-3A program at Hanscom in the key 1973­77 period. It meant changing the way in which some data were monitored and adding a few internal consoles. It increased the cost somewhat.

From a political point of view, however, the addition of a new mission generated many problems.

The lookdown radar inside the signature rotodome provides a 360-degree view. The dome itself rotates, is 30 feet wide and six feet thick, and sits on two struts that support the radar 14 feet above the fuselage.

"It created a lot of turmoil," said Skantze. "Some of the program's opponents in Congress declared that we really didn't have a mission."

The AWACS program encountered strong opposition in the powerful House Armed Services Committee. A number of lawmakers on the panel saw the E-3 as a duplicative competitor to the Navy's E-2 Hawkeye, a carrier-based airborne early warning aircraft. One vocal critic was Rep. Patricia A. Schroeder, the liberal Democrat from Colorado. In the Senate, the main adversary was Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, the liberal Missouri Democrat.

One technical argument made by critics in the program's early years was that the AWACS radar could be easily jammed. That would have made it ineffective in Western Europe, they argued, because the Soviets had powerful jamming equipment on their densely militarized side of the Iron Curtain.

Eventually Congress voted to establish a special review committee to investigate this claim and other AWACS questions. Legislative language also required the Secretary of Defense to certify that the system would work before it could proceed in development.

In the end this arrangement worked to the program's advantage. The review committee concluded that the radar would in fact work, and on that basis Congress in early 1975 released the initial batch of long-lead money for the first six airplanes.

Skantze observed: "The committee was very helpful in saying that it did not see [jamming] as a showstopper."

In March 1977, the first AWACS was formally delivered to Tactical Air Command's 552nd Airborne Warning and Control Wing at Tinker.

Production of USAF's aircraft continued until June 1984, when the last of 34 Air Force E-3s rolled off Boeing's line. (A September 1995 crash in Alaska left USAF with only 32 operational aircraft today. One is assigned to Boeing for tests.)

Even at the program's inception, other nations had a keen interest in buying AWACS's capability. The NATO Alliance, France, Saudi Arabia, and United Kingdom all now fly 707­based AWACS aircraft, bringing the total worldwide fleet to 66. In addition, Japan purchased four 767­based AWACS models.

Back in 1977, Skantze and others estimated that AWACS would remain in service for some 20 or 30 years. Since then, that figure has doubled, with current plans calling for the aircraft to remain in service until perhaps 2035. AWACS's continuing value is due to both its operational capabilities and its power as a symbol.

When the US deploys AWACS to a troubled region, it shows that the Air Force means business. At the same time, the system itself is not provocative, as it has no inherent offensive capability.

"The thing we didn't perceive at first but which became apparent as time passed was the ability of the system to surveil airspace in great depth but not pose a threatening aspect," said Skantze.

The basic E-3 aircraft is a militarized version of Boeing's 707-320B. The most obvious modification is the large rotodome put on the back of the airplane. The dome is 30 feet in diameter, six feet thick, and sits on two struts that support the radar 14 feet above the fuselage.

Inside the dome are identification, friend or foe and data-link fighter-control antennas and the antenna of the powerful AWACS radar system. The radar has a range of more than 250 miles for low-flying targets. It can see medium- to high-altitude fliers at even greater distance.

Data are collected, processed, and displayed on onboard consoles for 13 to 19 mission specialists in real time. AWACS can forward the location and track of friendly and adversary systems to users ranging from the individual pilot in a fighter cockpit to the White House Situation Room--at the same time.

It can fly a mission profile for eight hours without refueling. In-flight refueling, plus the use of an onboard crew rest area, can extend missions greatly.

The E-3s were nameless during testing. Come delivery, that

"I Dub Thee Sentry"

As time for delivery of the first E-3 AWACS approached in 1977, the question was what to name it. Gen. Robert J. Dixon, commander of Tactical Air Command, wanted to call it Sentry.

Securing the name, however, was the job of the developer, Air Force Systems Command. It was up to AFSC to run the bureaucratic and legal traps for approval. A host of other things, including an insurance company, were already named Sentry. The lawyers said the E-3 would have to be called something else.

Dixon, sometimes known as "The Alligator" for good reason, was not pleased. The AWACS remained unnamed.

On delivery day at Tinker AFB, Okla., the first airplane taxied up to the reviewing stand. The band played and the crowd cheered. The Alligator stepped to the microphone and announced, "I dub thee Sentry."

And that was that.