E-11A BACN (9001) Model

E11a BACN Model Fly again in the E-11 BACN aircraft with this handcrafted carved scale model.  Each piece is carved from wood and hand-painted to provide a piece you'll love. Length - 18 inches Made from Mahogany US Veteran Owned Business Bombardier E-11A BACN Bombardier E-11A is the military variant of the civil Bombardier BD-700 Global Express for use as overhead communications-relay platform in SW Asia. It carries Northrop Grumman Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN [pronounced "bacon"], allowing disparate battlefield communications systems to share data. BACN was deployed on a test Bombardier BD-700 & originally designated RC-700A under reconnaissance classification. Re-designated E-11A under special electronics installation category. All of the U.S. Air Force’s E-11A aircraft with the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node payload are assigned to the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron and operate solely out of Kandahar Airfield. BACN “is like Wi-Fi in the sky,” explained U.S. Air Force Capt. Jacob Breth, 430th EECS pilot. The BACN was developed in direct response to the communication shortfalls during Operation Red Wings, a joint U.S. military mission in Kunar Province, Afghanistan in 2005. The operation became well known following the success of the book and subsequent movie “Lone Survivor” by Marcus Luttrell, a former SEAL and the only surviving member of the mission. Due to Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain and lack of existing communication infrastructure, serious communication challenges prevented the four-man SEAL patrol from effectively establishing contact with their combat operations center, leaving them vulnerable to the attacks that claimed the lives of 19 U.S. special operations service members. The BACN works to ensure a consistent and effective form of communication in nearly any location or environment, significantly reducing the possibility of communication failure and increasing the rate of mission success. The payload, or package of sensors carried on the E-11A, allows command and control to get in contact with the troops on the ground, and vice versa, to enable mission accomplishment, Breth said. In June 2011 the Air Force announced the purchase of a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express aircraft for use as an overhead communications-relay platform in Southwest Asia. This aircraft carries Northrop Grumman's Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, which allows disparate battlefield communications systems to share data. The Air Force had been leasing this aircraft, but then decided it would make more business sense to purchase it. "The prime contractor understands the military is looking to effectively use every dollar provided and worked hand-in-hand with the government team to facilitate the transition of this new platform into the [Air Force] inventory," a spokesman for the Electronics System Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., told the Daily Report Thursday. The Air Force expected to take possession of the aircraft in July 2011, after which it assumed the designation E-11A. Two different aircraft platforms that fly the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) system, developed by the Northrop Grumman Corporation, have been officially designated by the US Air Force as the E-11A and the EQ-4B. The Northrop Grumman Global Hawk RQ-4Bs modified to host the BACN system have been re-designated as EQ-4Bs. The Bombardier Global Express BD-700 received the new E-11A designation, reflecting BACN’s special electronic mission role. “This new designation of the manned and unmanned BACN aircraft reflects a unique aircraft mix that provides theater commanders complimentary capabilities to support the BACN missions,” said Claude Hashem, vice president and general manager of the company’s Network Communications Systems business at Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector. “The E-11A business jets provide rapid tactical deployment options, while the EQ-4B unmanned systems provid