E-2D Advanced Hawkeye in 1/72 Scale

The Aircraft:
The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye is the latest enhancement to the venerable E-2 Hawkeye line of aircraft that have been providing US Navy aircraft carrier strike groups Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) capabilities for the last several decades.

The original E-2 Hawkeye aircraft were designed and built in the early 1960s by Northrop Grumman as a replacement for the earlier, radial piston-engined E-1 Tracer, which was rapidly becoming obsolete at the time. The AEW&C capability provided by fixed wing aircraft like the Hawkeye provides the US Navy with a very significant force multiplier and advantage on the high seas because of its ability to fly high and provide its extensive sensors to monitor large volumes of air space for hundreds of miles around an aircraft carrier. This allows it to monitor, find, track, acquire, and point out potential threats to the carrier or its aircraft. The Hawkeye proved very capable at this and so it has been upgraded numerous times over its history.

The E-2 is a purpose built, US Navy aircraft, designed to fly off of Aircraft Carriers as opposed to modifying an existing airframe, such as the Boeing E-3 Sentry. This approach has been so successful for the US navy, that variants of the Hawkeye have been in continuous production since 1960, giving it the longest production run of any carrier-based aircraft in history.

The E-2B and E-2C versions were produced throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. They had most of their changes directed at the radar, radio communications, and electronics as advances in micronization, integrated circuits, and other advances in electronics and radars enabled them to handle more targets, harder to find targets, and at greater and greater ranges.

The fourth and latest version of the E-2 Hawkeye is the new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, which first flew in August 2007.

The E-2D is an entirely new build aircraft. it does not involve just upgrades to the existing air frame or improvements to it or the electronics. The aircraft has an entirely new avionics suite including the new AN/APY-9 radar, radio equipment, mission computer, integrated satellite communications, flight management system, improved T56-A-427A engines, a glass cockpit and aerial refueling. The APY-9 radar features an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, which adds electronic scanning to the mechanical rotation of the radar in its radome. The E-2D will include provisions for the copilot to act as a "Tactical 4th Operator" (T4O), who can reconfigure his main cockpit display to show radar, IFF, and Link 16 JTIDS/CEC, and access all acquired data.

The E-2D has been designed from the outset to allow for Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) which allows the E-2D to pass targeting data from itself, or other warfighters, to other aircraft or ships in order to engage. This powerful feature would, for example, allow aircraft or vessels to approach and engage a target without reveling themselves through their own radars and sensors. In May 2009, an E-2D used its Cooperative Engagement Capability system to engage an overland cruise missile with a Standard Missile SM-6 fired from another platform in an integrated fire-control system test. This capability (an others) forms the basis for the US Navy Integrated Fire Control – Counter Air (NIFC-CA). According to the Navy's NIFC-CA concept, the E-2D could guide fleet weapons, such as AIM-120 AMRAAM and SM-6 missiles, onto targets beyond a launch platform's detection range or capabilities.

The new APY-9 radar is capable of detecting fighter-sized stealth aircraft, which are typically optimized against high frequencies Ka, Ku, X, C, and parts of S-band radars. Stealth aircraft, because of size and weight restrictions, typically cannot apply full all-spectrum low-observable features. This creates a vulnerability that the E-2D has been designed to take advantage with the UHF-band APY-9 radar, against fifth-generation aircraft like the Russian Sukhoi PAK FA or the Chinese Chengdu J-20 and Shenyang J-31. Using electronic scanning and high digital computing power via space/time adaptive processing. the E-2Ds APY-9 radar has overcome historical limits that kept them from finding and acquiring fifth generation aircraft like these.

Deliveries of initial production E-2Ds began in 2010.In February 2010, one of these production aircraft conducted the first E-2D carrier landing aboard a US Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman. In September 2011, an E-2D was successfully launched by the prototype Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst. In February 2013, the Office of the Secretary of Defense approved the E-2D to for full-rate production.

The Navy plans for initial operational capability in 2015.

By June 2014, Northrop Grumman had delivered 13 production aircraft to the US Navy. ANother 12 aircraft were on the production line. In that same month (June 2014), Northrop Grumman was awarded a $3.6 billion contract to supply 25 more E-2Ds. This will bring the total to 50 aircraft either delivered or on order out of a total planned acquisition of 75 aircraft.

In October 2014, the first full E-2D squadron, VAW-125, became operational. The first five aircraft from that squadron were assigned to Carrier Air Wing One aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group departed Naval Station Norfolk in MArch 2015 on an around the world tour to the U.S. 5th, 6th and 7th Fleets to show off, exercise and train the new E-2Ds with the rest of the fleets.

Other nations also operate the E-2 Hawkeye, principally the E-2C. France, Japan, Egypt, and Mexico. it is expected that France, Japan, and ultimately India will all be customers for the E-2D aircraft.

Specifications:
Length: 57 ft. 8.75 in.
Wing Span: 80 ft. 7 in.
Folded Wing Span: 29 ft. 4 in.
Height: 18 ft. 3.25 in.
Wing Area: 80 ft. 7 in.
Speed: 450 mph (353 knots)
Ceiling: 37,000 ft.
Power Plant:
2 x Rolls-Royce T56-A-427 Turboprop engines (5100 shp each)
Crew: 5 (2 pilots, 3 mission systems operators) Option for co-pilot as 4th mission systems operator.
Max Takeoff Weight: 52,580 pounds
Empty Weight: 39,880 pounds
Unrefueled Range: 1,500 miles

The Kit:
This Hasegawa kit is an E-2Cin 1/72 scale. The physical outside differences between the latest tE-2C and E-2D aircraft are minimal and I will be able to make those as I go.

The markings for the Carrier airwings are also similar and I will be able to implement those.

The latest E-2C Hawkeye 2000 and beyond aircraft look almost identical to the E-2D.

Hasegawa is a very good model company with excellent molding capabilities that make for little flash or other mold related carryover.

This aircraft has a lot of nice features. The Radar Dome can be made to rotate. The six bladed propellers are very detailed and can be made to rotate. The undercarriage and wheel bays are detailed and very accurate. The cockpit is very detailed and includes very decent pilot and co-pilot seats, with the instrumentation and good decals for the instrumentation and glass cockpit.

There are a total of 12 sprues with over 175 parts. One of the sprues is molded in clear plastic (for the canopy, landing lights, the nose, etc.), and the other nine are in light grey.

The instructions are very well written and very intuitive. The color scheme is in black and white, but clearly marked and includes a list of the various colors called out on the color scheme.

There is an excellent set of color decals for the aircraft, and they are the high contrast markings for a Hawkeye 2000 from VAW-115, "Liberty Bells, aboard the USS George Washington, CVN-74.

Here's how the aircraft looked out of the box:

The Build - Cockpit and Radar Dome - June 13, 2015

I started by building the cockpit. It is pretty decent including the steering yokes, the seats, very decent instrument panels, and the deck floor and bulkhead behind the cockpit leading to the electronic operator deck, though that deck is not included.

I then painted and built the large support and housing for the radar dome carried by these aircraft.

The Build - Fuselage, main wing, vertical stabilizer - June 15, 2015

I was now ready to build the main structure of the aircraft.

I started by placing the cockpit assembly that I had already finished into the left side of the fuselage and then gluing the fuselage together.

I then built the main wing, which includes some nice detail for the aerilons, and then assembled the vertical stabilizers (there are four). I had previously painted these, using Neutral Grey for the body of the aircraft, and black for the vertical stabilizers in keeping with the Washington's VAW-115 squadron markings.

That's looking pretty nice.

Lots of details to go though.

In the next session I will paint the canopy, build and add the engine nacelles and props, and also try and add the landing gear.

The Build - Engine nacelles, canopy, flaps, propellers, laning gear and wheels - June 18, 2014

There were a lot of parts and portions of the E-2D to add in this session, so I will just get down to it and you can see from the pictures how the painting, assembly, and build is going.

First there were the two engine nacelles for the aircraft's turbo-prop engines.


Then I painted and detailed the canopy, as well as the flaps on the back of the wings. The inside of the flap area is painted a distinctive red on the E-2D (and all of the later Hawkeyes) and I wanted to show this, depicting the flaps in a partially down position.

After this it was time to paint and assemble the six pladed props for the aircraft and then add them.


Finally, I painted, assembled, and added the landing gear, and then painted, assembled and added the wheels and tires. She's looking very good.

The large Radome is completed, but I just dry fitted it there in that last photo (as before) I will wait until I add all of the decals before adding it so that they are easier to apply.

In the next session I will add the landing gear doors,, the tail hook for landing, and all of the numerous antennae and sensors on the aircraft. At that point she will be ready for those decals.

The Build - Arrestor hook, antennae and details, landing bay doors, decals - June 20, 2014

I started off this session by adding the arrrestor hook. I am going to show it in the down positon. Two reasons. I wanted to show it as if though the aircraft is alnding...and, really, the aircraft is back heavy and I did not add any weight to the front...so I need it to hold the back up anyway, LOL!. I then added all of the numerous antennae and sensors to the aircraft.

Then it was on to the landing bay doors. There are quite a few of them to cover all of the bays where these gear close into. I painted the edges red as per the actual aircraft and then added them all.