NATO Picks E-7 as Its New AWACS; Six Aircraft to Start
Nov. 17, 2023
NATO has selected Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail as its next airborne moving target indicator and air battle management aircraft, succeeding the aging Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS, the alliance announced this week. The first of six aircraft will be operational by 2031, but the fleet may grow beyond that number.
The alliance joins Australia, South Korea, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S. as having selected the Wedgetail; the U.S. Air Force plans to acquire 26 of the aircraft.
The Wedgetail beat out several other offerings for NATO, including the Saab Global Eye; a Bombardier Global 6500 equipped with mission equipment provided by L3Harris; and Northrop Grumman’s E-2D. Northrop is also a major supplier to Boeing on the E-7, as the builder of the Wedgetail’s main, dorsally-mounted Multi-role Electronically-Scanned Array (MESA) radar.
The value of the planned acquisition was not stated.
The Air Force announced its selection of the E-7 in February, capping the undefinitized development contract at $1.2 billion. An Air Force-specific prototype will enter production by 2025, and the first E-7 is to be in service by 2027, with the last delivered by 2032.
The Air Force’s acquisition of the E-7 is characterized by the service as “urgent,” as mission availability rates for its aging E-3s have fallen below 60 percent in recent years. That urgency required going with a non-developmental, off-the-shelf solution, officials said. However, USAF E-7s will be equipped with a unique mission gear suite, including more extensive communications functions and possible application as a controller of autonomous aircraft.
In a statement, NATO said the choice of the E-7 was made by “a consortium of Allies” who “gave their approval to the project, one of NATO’s biggest-ever capability purchases, this month.” Production is set to begin “in the coming years,” the release added
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The Wedgetail beat out several other offerings for NATO, including the Saab Global Eye; a Bombardier Global 6500 equipped with mission equipment provided by L3Harris; and Northrop Grumman’s E-2D.
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NATO Picks E-7 as Its New AWACS; Six Aircraft to Start
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8moTo be able to manage an average of 35 live flights per day 35 years after the very beginning of the ACCS Program, are we supposed to be impressed by such an improvement ?