Sheila Vemmer / Defense News Media Group U.S. Navy Cdr. David Buttram is the E-2C requirements officer in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

The U.S. Navy’s E-2C Hawkeye wasn’t originally part of the overland C4I plan for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but the prop-driven radar plane turned out to be the only way allied forces maintained 24-7 coverage in their northern area of operations, said Cdr. David Buttram, the E-2C requirements officer in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

With crews flying one and sometimes two missions a day, a pair of Hawkeye squadrons provided nearly two-thirds of the airborne command- and-control coverage in the area, Buttram said.

And when the Navy moves from the –C variant to the –D in about five years, the Hawkeye will carve out yet another additional niche: helping add a layer in U.S. cruise-missile defenses, he told defense and industry representatives April 27 at the 2006 Cruise Missile & IED Defense Conference: Joint Engagement of Time-Critical Air & Ground Targets, sponsored by the Defense News Media Group, in Arlington, Va..

The upgraded –D model will feature a better radar sensor with 2½ times the search volume, plus an improved ability to perform its functions over land, Buttram said. The plane will also get an improved communications suite with much better ability to share data across a battlespace network.

He declined to say whether the Hawkeye would provide fire-control-quality tracking data to the armed platforms that might be assigned to shoot down incoming cruise missiles.

The shift to the upgraded aircraft will also boost total mission time from about 4.5 hours to seven or eight. Buttram showed a photo that illustrated how: an E-2C sucking down gas in an aerial refueling with an F/A-18 Super Hornet.

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