Shadow Defence Minister Mark Francois has issued a stark warning over the UK’s lack of airborne early warning capability, accusing Boeing of presiding over a troubled and delayed E-7 Wedgetail programme and demanding urgent answers from the Ministry of Defence.
Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate on 16 July, Francois said it was time to confront “the sheer lack of progress” on delivering the RAF’s next-generation airborne early warning and control aircraft, warning that Britain currently has “no eyes in the sky.”
“We live in an increasingly dangerous world,” said Francois. “If we are to take seriously the warnings from the head of the British Army that we could face peer-on-peer conflict with Russia by 2027, then having a modern airborne early warning control aircraft such as Wedgetail in operational service would be vital.”
Francois stressed that the capability gap left by the retirement of the E-3D Sentry was deeply concerning, particularly in light of Russia’s demonstrated ability to strike fixed installations with long-range cruise missiles.
“In the event of a peer conflict with Russia, it is highly likely that most of our fixed RAF radar stations would fall victim to cruise missile attacks within the early few days, or even hours, of such a conflict,” he said. “At present, we can supplement those with a limited number of mobile radars, but we simply do not have any operational airborne early warning capability right now.”
Francois praised the workforce at the conversion facility in Meriden, where commercial Boeing 737s are being transformed into Wedgetail variants, but reserved harsh criticism for Boeing’s leadership.
“None of this is aimed at the workforce,” he said. “It is much more at the senior management of Boeing, a company now facing massive reputational issues in both civilian and defence areas.”
He also took aim at political opponents who have remained silent on defence matters. “I would like to have congratulated the Reform MP who contributed to this debate but, as ever, they are not here because Reform don’t do defence.”
Francois urged ministers to provide a definitive timeline for when the RAF’s three Wedgetails will be fully certified and operational, stating that “part of the purpose of today’s debate is to elicit from the Government when E-7 Wedgetail will finally enter operational service.”
The long-delayed programme, which replaces the retired E-3D Sentry fleet, has drawn sustained criticism from across the House of Commons over cost-cutting decisions and capability risks. Defence officials have yet to confirm when the first aircraft will be declared operational.
America continues to grow more and more unreliable…
I would worry more about the MOD. Gapping a capability and hoping for the best doesn’t really seem like sound policy. And it has been done repeatedly.
Essentially, why was the E-3D retired before its replacement was available. The military taught me that Prior Planning Prevents P@#* Poor Performance. A very poor show indeed.
It was retired because it was getting less and less effective against stealth. It was no longer cutting the mustard….
Some thing is better than nothing at all
All the super stealthy Russian platforms with the RCS of a block of flats?
🤣💯
I saw this on an interview with a USAF general who wanted to get rid of the Sentry ASAP in favour of the E7….
USAF has genuinely stealthily platforms like F35 and F22 to test against……others less so……
Govt after Govt has tended to see the military as a sort of Airshow and promotional tool for UK plc rather than for fighting actual wars with anything deemed beyond casual conflicts a thing of the past. So gaps in capability weren’t deemed a serious problem as long as we keep the Red Arrows going on a World Tour, paint Typhoons in BofB camouflage while push comes to shove sparing a few planes to show willing to keep whoever is condescend-ally deemed modern day ‘fuzzy wuzzies’ at bay when the US comes calling. Now they are running round like headless chickens trying to work out how to actually prepare for a real war preferably on a shoestring and where ever possible mythical spending this year in the hope there might magically be more the next.
A devastating cynical comment but I have to say I’m pleased that someone stepped up and said it, because it needed saying. That said I think John Healey is a decent bloke with some integrity.
When you realise how little is actually spent in conventional military it is amazing how much we actually have.
But that is at the expense of spares and people after 40 years of doing more with less.
“Now they are running round like headless chickens trying to work out how to actually prepare for a real war preferably on a shoestring”
I have seen very little evidence of this. It seems close enough to business as usual, although with a significant uptick in the rhetoric. There are the same tricks Cameron used. Fudging the headline figures, signing alliances for example with France and Germany and claiming it will uplift our safety. Fortunately, unlike with Cameron, I don’t think it’s to hide further massive cuts this time, rather to hide inaction and stasis. Then there’s the question of how can we use money going into Defence to create an increase in economic growth. Nothing wrong with that per se, of course, as long as it comes from extra money. However, extra money has recently come in the form of unspendable announcements, which they then refer to in the past tense, hoping nobody notices the actual money is still years away.
However, where is this preparation for real war you are talking about? I can’t see any headless chickens in government. Sir Keir only cares about appearing to care. It’s true the MOD are running around a lot, creating an illusion of progress, having been ordered to rearrange the deckchairs again, but not to worry about that: it’s the most important and extensive rearrangement of deckchairs since the Cold War. Levene out – Robertson in. So it must be good.
As befits a lawyer Starmer seems to approach issues dispassionately with the calculated logic based on modern equity law which translates in the political world to pragmatism.
It was an ageing Platform,increasingly hard to support across a small Fleet.Everything is a balance between Capability vs Cost vs the Threat thay are expected to meet.The Russian Threat was not considered serious enough at the time to prevent a Gap in Operations.
Rich comments when it was Cameron who withdrew the E3Ds early. They could still be flying, even if fewer in number. Another national is now operating them…you could not make it up…
America and Chile.
Cameron was ‘withdrawn’ way before E3-D.
It’s lucky that our cutting edge Crowsnest has reached FOC 🙂
I bet we could build a JORN system by the time we are all in service.
Bit rich for a former Tory MP to start whingeing when he was quite happy with delaying them and cutting five to three when he was in office. It seems every Politician and Chief of Staff gets a “Road to Damascus” moment on leaving office about things they were noticeably silent about when they were in a position to do something!
As we have radar set, wonder if Airbus could fit to A321 NEO XLR?
sure it will fit since it’s a bigger plane, the problem is the cost of integration on top of managing 2 micro fleets
Should never have retired the Shacks.
Absolutely! These microchips are a disaster. And Pay by Phone parking is an idea that should have been strangled at birth!
His party scrapped Sentry with out a replacement, his party cut the order. Short memory he has. 3 is not enough and when we finally get them it will be proved right.
I’m afraid I have to agree.
Cutting from 5 to 3 has made Boeing think, why bother?
Always easy to demand when in opposition.
Not so easy it seems, the approval rating just keeps dropping. They can’t even do opposition correctly.
Why can’t they top up the last 2xE7s quantity with a few more P8s? Hope they’ve got enough spare parts to keep the fleet going?
Or get 3-4 SAAB Globaleye?
Making the Russians laugh even more 🙄