ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE — A Joint STARS aircraft belonging to the 116th Air Control Wing has sustained in-flight damage in Southwest Asia.

The incident happened March 13, said Col. Dom Eanniello, vice commander for the Robins Air Force Base unit.

“The air crew had an indication of an abnormality, which led them to come back and land,” Eanniello said. “That’s when they discovered it.” The colonel did not specify the cause of the damage, although he said it was not combat related nor was it due to a bird strike.

The premier ground surveillance system generally flies with four air crew and 18 mission crew members. No one was injured in the incident.

The vice commander said there was extensive damage to internal fuel tanks on the wing, and repairs will be significant. “It will require more than just a patch,” he said.

The 116th is the nation’s only Joint STARS unit. The remaining 16 aircraft in the wing, at Robins and the deployed location, have been inspected and cleared for normal flight operations.

“It doesn’t appear to have anything to do with how we operate the airplane,” the colonel added.

An Air Force safety investigation board has been convened, including workers from Northrop Grumman, the Air Force’s prime sustainment contractor for the aircraft.

“After the safety board completes their investigation in about two weeks, we’ll turn it over to a collateral damage board to look at some other issues,” Eanniello said. “That will take about a month. Then the engineers will determine if it can be fixed where it is or needs to be brought back here. It’s too early to say. It will be down for a couple of months minimum.”

Joint STARS are converted Boeing 707-300 airframes — some up to 50 years old. They are jammed with radar, computers and communications gear for detecting, identifying and tracking moving ground targets up to 150 miles away. They have been air surveillance mainstays in Iraq and Afghanistan, approaching 50,000 flight hours providing support for supply convoys and ground troops.

“We’re flying at twice the surge rate we’re supposed to be flying,” Eanniello said. “And of course things like this happen. Whether it’s a one-of-a-kind thing or a manufacturing defect, it’s impossible to tell until the safety board is done. But aircraft are machines and if you fly enough hours, something is going to break eventually.”