The Royal Air Force’s new Wedgetail E-7 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft has taken its maiden flight in the UK, marking a major milestone for the programme.
The unpainted aircraft conducted a Functional Check flight from Birmingham Airport, testing critical systems such as flying controls, engines, and avionics.
The Wedgetail, known for its advanced capabilities, will provide the RAF with enhanced surveillance and target tracking. According to Group Captain Richard Osselton, RAF Programme Director for Wedgetail, “Achieving the first flight of Wedgetail is a significant milestone, representing an outstanding effort from the RAF programme team, Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), Boeing, and STS Aviation Services.”
The E-7 Wedgetail, built on a Boeing 737 airframe, features a state-of-the-art Multirole Electronically Scanned Array radar that gives it a 360-degree view of the airspace. This makes it a critical asset for commanders in complex combat scenarios, providing early warning of approaching threats. It will also enhance the situational awareness of Joint Force commanders by delivering tactical control to other assets.
Boeing’s Vice President and E-7 Program Manager, Stu Voboril, emphasised the importance of this initial test flight, stating, “This safe and systematic Functional Check Flight is an important step for Boeing and the RAF as part of our rigorous and extensive testing and evaluation.”
The Wedgetail is already operational with the air forces of Australia, South Korea, and Turkey, and has been selected by the United States Air Force and NATO. The aircraft’s UK variant will be stationed at RAF Lossiemouth alongside the Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft, with both aircraft benefiting from synergies as they share the Boeing 737 platform.
Later this autumn, the Wedgetail will receive its official RAF livery before continuing its Test & Evaluation phase. The first of these cutting-edge aircraft is expected to enter service with the RAF in the near future, further boosting the UK’s air defence capabilities.
Good to see, let’s see if SDSR25 funds two more, hopefully before the team spit I and the cost of further conversions goes through the roof!
SDSR25 is likely to be a disaster, defence spending will likely be slashed and we’ll be lucky just to get the three E-7s in order into service. Labour are not committed to defence.
I think we forget that this government have committed to 2.5% of GDP and have said they will set out a funding strategy for that path in the SDR. Whilst I am not a fan of this government or have any real faith in them or there supposed commitments I do believe we will see some pleasant surprises. I also believe some bad and indeed stupid decisions will be made. We can only wait. They simply cannot continue to ignore the reality of what we are seeing unfold. The more that happens in the interim will force some hands
.. but didn’t Starmer commit to INCREASING Defence spending to 2.5% GDP in July?
and your point is?
Whoah, you should go to your bed. If they’re “not committed to defence,” why would they commit to INCREASING spending? Eh?
Didn’t Healy say the MOD will do its part in reducing the ‘black hole’ as well? ie: cuts!
I believe that is in year mate, not connected to the review.
Bob A made this point here the other day, some are getting confused with the two.
I too don’t trust Labour on defence matters but I’m willing to concede what Bob says about in year spending.
Starmer committed to a lot of things ..for the sole purpose of getting elected. Some were silly enough to believe him.
You’re funny. Reform your thing?
it is funny considering they all do just that. My take on Western modern politics is to warp Mr Churchills’ eloquent quote(no disrespect intended to him or fighter command). “Seldom were so many so poorly served by so few”
Yes, good one.
😁👍 A virtually universal critique of government. 😉
Hi Mate, I should add that here in NZ , we have a return to a centre right collation government. Proving to be a real positive change after the damage Jacinda ( aka Tax -inda) Ardern and her academic clowns caused!
Mine is. Neither Tories or labour can be trusted in virtually anything. Greens yours ?
Not really. His statements on 2.5% always come with the important caveat of “only when the country can afford it”, and he has repeatedly refused to a set “an arbitrary date” for reaching that. As such he can even argue that a “temporary” cut in the defence budget to below 2.0% of GDP (excluding the 0.2% that is aid to Ukraine) is essential for the greater good of the UK’s finances, although (paraphrasing his recent statements) he “remains committed to 2.5% when it can be achieved under fiscal rules”. My hope is that the USA (under Trump?) and other allies will start… Read more »
Sure but no commitment to when – which means never!
He said he would increase spending if and when financial conditions allow which means no ….
He’s said a lot of things as did his party in which they never had any intention doing
Notionally yes, but at some vague, unspecified point in the future (read, very distant future)
In other words, not during his tenure as prime minister
He said that but also added “when the finances allow!”…. So never
The Keir Starmer that said Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners were safe before the election, that Keir Starmer you mean!
With Starmer the best you can hope for is that 2% is maintained and if it is it will probably be because GDP has shrunk in real terms.
I did actually look to see if they did make a promise on winter fuel allowance before the election, and I could not find any promise on its ( or any real comment about it at all).
2.5% in what time period did Starmer specify exactly? If it was within the time period of Labour being elected and remaining in power that will be interesting to see, it might be a carrot to dangle in the last 6 months of the political term they hold.
Fairly sure Starmer has said multiple times the previous government was the party of tax increases and reduced public spending, something he appears will continue himself.
Mate, things are so bad that it seems there is no room to cut more. Anyway, my glass half full approach.
This is not a niche requirement. It is a core requirement. Fit any limited scale warfare, such as UKR, these are gold dust. Knowledge is power on any battlefield. Their other use is screwing a lid on things. Let me explain. You can’t hide anything, build up or whatever, with these around. So if you are monitoring an area a discrete buildup isn’t possible. So that only leaves a covert buildup under cover of an exercise. And an exercise has to be announced and it is assumed it will be monitored. So I think the E7 should be called The… Read more »
Agreed. ISTAR is the most important area of the military for me.
I emphasise it alongside the need for prioritising the RN and RAF often enough.
I think Peacekeeper is being used for the new US ICBM too.
Air Seeker for the Rivet Joint never took off as the in service British name, will the E7 remain Wedgetail?
I thought that Peacekeeper was the previous attempt to replace Minuteman in the 1980s?
It was. Am I getting my Peackeepers mixed up?
I am indeed. I am getting Peacekeeper mixed up with Sentinel!!
No probs. Just thought it would be unusual to use samr name twice🙂
spot on DM – that is correct. The last Peacekeeper missiles were retried in the early 2000s.
It was a partial replacement in the late 80′- I think circa 100 were built. Minuteman 2 was to be replaced with a smaller missile system called Midgetman -cancelled post cold war. They planned to retain Minuteman 3.
Agree, if there is one thing that really is a no brainier for the review will be ordering the full 5, as the sensors have already been purchased.
Not only that I would say it’s a bit of kit the your average punter would feel is making the UK safer..it’s an easy win that people would understand and agree, even your right wing little englander or leftie pacifist would not really object to these with in ways they would with things like aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships.
Absolutely spot on SB, couldn’t have put it better Sir!
Starmer is a convinced anti British , the future defence cuts Will end the British military capability.
Micki – I fear your comment is likely to be correct! 😡
No, Micky’s friend Farage, is putins☠ best friend, so is certainly anti British!
I just noticed from another post you are from Kiwi? Your PM doesn’t seem bad, a Conservative? Your previous PM seemed to be a CCP appeaser? She seemed Woke?
You are certainly a contradiction! Because your mate Farage is putler’s☠ best mate, so is certainly anti- British!
Why have you got to be always reminded of that fact??
🥳?
You just working hard for your masters in the Kremlin, as usual!
But they kept saying they were when they were in opposition and during the election campaign!
There is room for debate on this, the RAF must get the two additional aircraft. IMO, this is the most pressing requirement for the RAF.
Agreed.
Forget your fancy fast jets….The enablers, never neglect the enablers!
Yep, it’s really bloody poor. Sadly, as the build team disperse to new projects, the cost of the further two will rise and probably substantially…
Totally agree mate, we will see…
Forget it
Have to have these but we have no protection if incoming is detected , 7- 12 minutes is not enough time to wipe your arse, plus we have no defence.needs to spend lots more now on defence .
No mention of who manufactures the radar, that is the clever bit fitted onto Boeing’s model 737 civil airliner airframe. Seriously I am curious about the radar
I still can’t believe that the MOD cancelled the fourth and fifth aircraft, despite almost no savings resulting from a procurement and equipment budget perspective. A decision definitely in the MOD’s top 5 “penny wise pound foolish” false economies since 2000, which has a very crowded field of contenders! Anyone know what has happened to the two suddenly surplus Northrop Grumman MESA radars? It was too late to cancel these and the MOD had to take delivery of them. The two options under consideration in 2022 were to try to sell them on at a discount to another buyer of… Read more »
CAS has admitted the “aspiration”is still for 5.
I’m optimistic on this.
As long as people understand some thing else might get reduced to pay.
It could be a toss up between 2 more E7’s or a couple more P8s, or a few more Protectors. Or more likely none of the above options.
Morning mate.
The 16 Protector is sufficient I think? IF they were UK basing prioritised with the maritime payload thats planned.
If they end up being forward deployed in the ME too not so much.
It’s why I’d like Reaper retained on station to do the ME Air Handler, overwatch role.
If there are any uplifts in this vital area it’s a toss up between more P8 and E7 for me.
I think E7 edges it? Three might enable one for UKADR only HD tasking, but no chance of one forward deployed concurrently?
In the end it’s the RAF budget and if you’re asking the RAF, I could not ever imagine them going “ could we sacrifice AEW and control aircraft and instead have more MPAs please”. The MPAs are essentially an enabler for RN operations, the E7 is the single most important enabler for RAF operations…
totally agree with you Jonathan.
The 16 protectors would be very good if the work on the seaspray 7500E V2 radar is funded to the finish and purchased, that would turn your Protectors into a reasonably valid MPA…I understand there was also talk of a sonobuoy dispenser and capability to monitor and manage them..give it the ability to pop on a lightweight torpedo and maritime brimstone and you have a very long loiter MPA.
I’d read it was funded and they’d possibly operate off the QECs too.
That’s very good if they are. If they could operate off the QEC that would give you a very good MPA ISTAR platform that could be anywhere…the sort of thing that would be handy in the pacific.
The RAF would not I imagine prioritise P8 over E7..the first is essentially an enabler for the RN the second is the CORE enabler for the RAF.
Hi Robert, given the choice , 2 more E7 please.
12 squadron is an easy win…or should I say easy lose to pay for this and let’s be honest the RAF would happily see the medium rotor purchase reduced down to a minimum 1 to 1 replacement for puma.
The savings come more from in service operating costs. 3 aircraft are cheaper to operate than 5 over a 30+ year period. But 5 should be the number in service. At this moment in time I’d question if the RAF could crew 5 aircraft. All 5 would unlikely be in service at anyone time due to maintance schedules. But with manning levels as they currently are. Crewing 4 would probably be a stretch.
It takes time to generate the manning levels?
E7 hasn’t yet reached IOC so it would be amazing if we had n+1 crews!
Although the training pipeline will be scaled to provide crews for three frames for sure.
Given that one is going to always be in deep maintenance [if you have five] then crews for four frames is not that big an aspiration.
Hi Robert, 5 must be the number – 3 are in insufficient IMO.
Probably crew for 4 is sufficient with 1 in maintenance.
Its almost inevitable that there will be cuts, probably not to the budget but within the Armed forces, with the Army being reduced again so that other programs can go ahead
I would be amazed if the army was cut further. Healey voted against the reduction to 73k and is on record as saying he would like to increase army numbers. Discussion of decimal point %ages of GDP and timings misses the point; what we need is a bigger GDP. While Ms Reeves will insist on prudent financial housekeeping the govt strategy will be decisions which lead to growth in skilled jobs, the rebuilding of a healthy UK defence industry and economic growth. We are re-arming.
I still am not sure on this system. I like the electronic/radar suite, but to use a short haul aircraft? If operating say 1000 miles from base it would give about 6 hours on station. The RAF cannot carry out air to air refueling as we don’t have any tankers with a boom. So we need to depend on allies. So to keep one aircraft on station 1000 miles from base for 24 hours you need a minimum of three aircraft on the flight line. Yes know we have allies which will also have either the E-7 or E-3, yet… Read more »
You have a few £Bn handy to develop that? And the risk factors for something that high end and complicated? Bear in mind the whole reason for P8 and E7 were the various NIMROD fiascos. It had to be off the shelf. There are deep scars in Main Building from both of those! E7 is actually a pretty budget job. It has been derisked by AUS doing the development and testing. Even so, modifying the S/H 737 frames turned into more of a fiasco than it should have done due to lack of skills and underestimating the complexity of the… Read more »
Actually, Airbus have already successfully installed and tested a boom on the same platform as our Voyager tankers. There is the small problem of the airtanker contract though unless that has hopefully expired.
It is that same modification which would also allow us to buy some F-35As and have them actually be useful.
The dual boom / drogue version was sold to AUS?
If members serves me well – which it may not!
If so it is derisked!
Extra (fuel) tankage by Marshalls of Cambridge’.
Its a nice idea. But the converstion and development costs would be huge.
Disaster waiting to happen and Nimrod AEW all over again was my first thought.
Fully agree its a non starter for many contractual, engineering and cost reasons.
The MOD should make this 3 ship purchase the last order for obsolete analogue Boeing 737NG platforms for the AWACS and ASW roles. In future the RAF and MOD should look to integrate its equipment for those roles on the Japanese Kawasaki P1 aircraft. This aircraft is a modern digital platform is superior to the 737NG for the ASW role while also allowing for the UK to more easily integrate its equipment on P1 than the USA offering which essentially forces the UK to purchase USA kit. In addition the purchase of the P1 will strengthen the UK Japan partnership… Read more »
The P1 is not superior to the P8 in ASW. Both are excellent platforms with different operating philosophies. The P8 flies higher providing a greater horizon for it’s sensors enabling it to search a far bigger area in a shorter period of time and works in league with drones . Both aircraft have around the same amount of time on station unless P1 shuts down one or two of its engines. P1 is designed to fly lower along the lines of the old P3, and indeed needs to fly a lot lower to make effective use of its magnetic detection… Read more »
so what do we expect to surveil with it, and what are the expected target’s ?
Yesterday when I was picking my Daughter up from school at 3.15 I witnessed this aircraft taking off . I thought to myself I’ve never seen anything like it before. Now I know why
Great news on the first flight so the programme is hopefully, finally coming good. Soooo… just a thought regarding increasing the RAF Wedegtail E7 fleet bearing in mind the unit cost for these is well over $600million and the MOD are cash-strapped: What if the MOD did a follow on order to build 2 more airframes using low hours 737 BBj’s and the existing supplied radar systems at the production facility at STS in Birmingham, but then sold/leased one of these to the USAF for their upcoming E7 test fleet. Why do this? The USAF are looking to build 2… Read more »
USAF selects will not be the same as the AUS/UK fleet of E7.
US MIC doesn’t accept NIH as it doesn’t come out of the Pork Barrel.
@Supportive Bloke: yes, but a man can dream can’t he? 🙂 Looks like the US aircraft won’t be that much different (well, thats the theory, especially if you think that the its only the UK MOD/RAF/RN/Army being the only ones that insist on ever more exquisite and niche requirements for new kit…) From Aviation week article on the USAF E7:”The U.S. versions will be based largely on the UK’s, with adjustments planned for satellite communication, military-code GPS, cybersecurity and program protection requirements.” https://aviationweek.com/defense/budget-policy-operations/how-soon-can-us-air-forces-e-7a-rapid-prototype-be-ready
“We want 8 and we won’t wait”
Or the pragmatic “five is fine and three is threadbare”
6th largest GDP in the world, yet the country is skint with next to nothing to show for it.
Cons, Labour, makes no difference, it’s all a pantomime. Democracy is a total sham. The real power brokers do what they want regardless.
We don’t even have a halo system so we would need more than 3 of these
“Britain’s early warning aircraft”….dependent upon the US for airframe support.
What a joke, another MoD fiasco.
Too much money to spend.
It’s not really true though. Aftermarket 737 parts are made the world over, including in China and India.
One wonders what aircraft technology will come about as years advance
The brains of this country are one of the best in the world ,and years back TSR 2 was cancelled with Wilsons Labour goverment which was far superior than any American model
Therefore never under estimate what this country can produce but now with other countries inputting thier brains into technology