Hawkeye at sixty

On 21 October 2020, the US Navy celebrated the sixtieth birthday of the first flight of the Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Command & Control aircraft.

The two-engined turboprop aircraft was designed and developed during the late 1950s as a replacement for the piston-engined Grumman E-1 Tracer. The initially designated W2F-1 became E-2A (59 built) and this one was further developed to E-2B (1965, 49 of the 59 E-2As were upgraded to E-2B standard), E-2C (1971, 63) and the most modern E-2D Avdanced Hawkeye (2007, up to 86 ordered so far), each version with upgraded variants, among others E-2C Group I, Group II, Nav Update, Hawkeye 2000, NP2000 (new eight-bladed propellor). First US Navy fleet indroduction took place in January 1964.

The Eyes of the Fleet, or Hummer as it was often called (due to the sound of the engines), saw many combat operations, from Vietnam to Operation Eldorado Canyon (Libya), Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield (Iraq), Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq), Operation Inherent Resole (Iraq/Syria). Hawkeyes have supported the US Coast Guard, the US Customs Service during counter-narcotics (CN) and maritime interdiction operations (MIO), but also joined operations with American federal and state police forces during anti-drug operations.

E-2s have been sold to the armed forces of Egypt (5x E-2C plus 1x added later on), France (3x E-2C plus 3x E-2D on order), Israel (4x E-2C, all withdrawn from use), Japan (13x E-2C plus 4x E-2D, with 5x E-2D on option), Mexico (3x E-2C, withdrawn from use), Singapore (4x E-2C), and Taiwan (4x E-2T/K).

Photo: US Navy (E-2D), Jack Morris (E-2B), John Olafson (E-2C NP2000), and Stephan de Bruijn (E-2C carrier), 3x kindly provided via AirHistory.net