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<p>The Sentinel R1 has been operationally deployed in support of a number of operations.
Some operations are considered to be both conventional and counter-insurgency; for
example operations in Afghanistan (Op HERRICK) and Iraq (Op SHADER). It has also been
deployed on operations in Libya (Op ELLAMY), Nigeria (Op TURUS) and Mali (Op NEWCOMBE),
all considered conventional operations.</p><p> </p><p>Sentinel was introduced in 2008
in the knowledge that a significant equipment upgrade would be required in the mid
2010’s.</p><p> </p><p>The Defence Review in 2010 cancelled this expected upgrade bringing
forward the likely out of service date.</p><p> </p><p>The SDSR 2015 determined that
Sentinel should be retained for a further period and set a new out of service date
of March 2021. While some work was conducted on the on-board equipment this fell well
short of a full system upgrade.</p><p> </p><p>The radar and mission system are now
increasingly obsolescent and will face increasing reliability issues as time progresses.</p><p>
</p><p>Retaining the capability would have required significant upgrade expenditure
and the March 2021 out of service date has been retained.</p><p> </p><p>No identical
capability is operated by the UK (though similar capabilities exist in the NATO inventory).</p><p>
</p><p>The UK does however have a number of other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
capabilities that collect different types of intelligence information, including long-range
strategic assets (Sentry, Rivet Joint and Poseidon) and shorter-range more tactically-focused
assets (including Shadow, Reaper and Watchkeeper).</p>
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