Summary The E-7A Wedgetail replaces the aging E-3 Sentry, providing the US Air Force with enhanced capabilities. The E-7A Wedgetail offers air-moving target indicator capability crucial for air superiority. Interoperability with allied air forces like the Royal Australian Air Force is a key benefit of the E-7A Wedgetail.
To complete a successful week for the Boeing corporation, Boeing announced on August 9 that the US Air Force has awarded Boeing a $2.56 billion contract for two rapid prototype E-7A AEW&C Wedgetail aircraft. The E-7A is the replacement of the E-3 AWACS, and the E-7A Wedgetail is already in the service of several key air forces allied with the US Air Force.
E-3 Sentry “takes a miracle” to fly daily According to an October 21, 2021 Air & Spaces Magazine report , not just was the E-3 Sentry was first brought online in 1977, but the Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly shared at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference in September that, “There’s a reason why exactly zero airlines around the globe fly the 707.
Because it takes a miracle ...
every day just to get it up in the air.” A 47-year-old airframe, as pictured below, based on a 1950s design is clearly a maintenance challenge. Additionally, according to the same Air & Spaces Magazine report, the E-7A Wedgetail offers the US Air Force the ability to gain an air-moving-target-indicator capability.
According to ScienceDirect , this is a pulsed radar using Doppler frequency calculations to discriminate moving targets from ground clutter. For the US Air Force, having the sharpest flying radar mounted on a reliable airframe is a must-have for the US Air Force. “The airspace lynchpin” As such, the US Air Force wanted a new flying radar platform.
The Boeing E-7A Wedgetail – a Boeing 737-700–based airframe – is the only US-built airframe currently being manufactured for airborne warning work. Additionally, using a 737-700 airframe means an airframe similar to the more than 9,000 737s in service and having access to more than 280 service centers and repair facilities worldwide, according to a Boeing July 8 blog. Overall, this news was somewhat expected, also considering Simple Flying's July 24 report .
The US Air Force and Boeing come to a deal for two E-7 Wedgetail prototype AWE&C aircraft. Read on for details. Now officially funded are the first two Boeing E-7A Wedgetails for the US Air Force.
In the Boeing August 9 statement, Dan Gillian, vice president and general manager of Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s Mobility, Surveillance & Bombers division, shared a response to the news that, “Our customers have an urgent need for integrated battlespace awareness and battle management. The E-7A is the airspace lynchpin to continuously scan the skies, command and control the battlespace, and integrate all-domain data providing a decisive advantage against threats. With our open systems architecture approach, capabilities can be rapidly inserted over time as threats evolve.
” The urgent need is because the current US Air Force airborne early warning and control platform, the Boeing 707-based E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, is aging. Plus the Wedgetail comes with the Northrop Grumman Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar scanning both the skies and the seas. According to Northrop Grumman, the MESA extends its sensor range by electronically scanning toward a suspected threat versus flying in closer.
The Wedgetail’s MESA also comes with enhanced Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) equipment, good resistance to jamming and comes with multiple channels and independent receivers. By starting to transition to the Wedgetail, the US Air Force will gain these capabilities and more interoperability with allied air forces. One of those allied air forces is the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Interoperability with the RAAF As previously mentioned, the E-7A Wedgetail is operated by some of the US Air Force’s partners, such as the RAAF. This summer at the RAAF’s Exercise Pitch Black, the RAAF let US Air Force servicemembers embed as one can see from the below RAAF photographs: Additionally, in an August 29, 2024, US Air Force Pacific Air Forces statement, one of the embedded air battle managers in US Air Force Maj. Oliver Ngayan, operating the Wedgetail radar and sharing the data with exercise participants, said, “For us, the purpose is really to get a familiarity of the E-7A Wedgetail from the Australians who have been operating it for a long time.
We integrate into their unit to learn how they operate the E-7A and take back that knowledge to develop our own procedures.” Ultimately, the US Air Force is getting a product already proven by the RAAF, the Turkish Air Force, and the South Korean Air Force. Additionally, the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has several Wedgetails on order, and NATO has decided that the Wedgetail will be the European military alliance’s future AWE&C platform.
Bottom line For all of Boeing’s recent publicized turbulence, such as onboarding a new CEO , the 737 MAX door plug situation requiring an acute redesign , and the first Boeing CST-100 Starliner stranded at the International Space Station, the past week has been a string of successes for Boeing’s defense division. Boeing has delivered the first production MH-139A Grey Wolf multi-mission helicopter as one can read more below : Boeing has just delivered the first production MH-139A Grey Wolf multi-mission helicopter to the US Air Force, but how many will the USAF buy? Additionally, Boeing is progressing swimmingly with its new Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) Pylon. The LAM Pylon development , initially funded by Boeing, is impressing US Air Force operational testers and leaders and can be used by more aircraft than the B-1B Lancer: The B-1B Bomer is gaining a new external, adaptable pylon for hypersonic missiles.
But this pylon can do much more. With Boeing landing after a significant process of a contract for two rapid prototypes of the E-7A Wedgetail with US Air Force-specific equipment after the above two successes this week, Boeing is clearly on a glide path to return to her historic going from strength to strength..
