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E-7A Wedgetail selected for AWACS successor

Gerhard Heiming

November 20, 2023

A committee of NATO allies has decided on the successor system to the “Airborne Warning and Control System” (AWACS), NATO announced. Accordingly, the existing Boeing E-3A is to be replaced by the E-7A Wedgetail. Six machines are to be ordered. Production is scheduled to start next year. The first system is scheduled to be delivered in 2031. The investment is one of the largest that NATO has ever made.

The aircraft are to be procured by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) through Foreign Military Sales (FMS), as Stacy Cummings, NSPA General Manager, announced at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council. A support partnership has been set up for AWACS at the NSPA, through which NATO countries support AWACS operations. As the NSPA writes, the panel determined that the Boeing E-7A AEW&C Wedgetail is the only known system that is currently capable of meeting the key operational requirements of strategic commands with its performance parameters and within the required time frame Delivery is available.

“Surveillance and control aircraft are critical to NATO’s collective defense and I welcome Allies’ commitment to investing in high-quality capabilities,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “By pooling resources, the alliance partners can jointly purchase and operate important resources that would be too expensive for individual countries to purchase. This investment in cutting-edge technology is a testament to the strength of transatlantic defense cooperation as we continue to adapt to a more unstable world.”

According to NATO, the E-7 Wedgetail is a modern early warning and control aircraft that provides situational awareness and command and control capabilities. Equipped with a powerful radar, the aircraft can detect enemy aircraft, missiles and ships at long distances and direct NATO fighter jets to their targets. The United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey also fly or plan to use the Wedgetail.

The E-7A is based on a militarized version of the Boeing 737-700ER airliner. The interior will be completely redesigned for early warning and operational control tasks. Workstations for up to ten soldiers, powerful mission computers and extensive communication facilities determine the interior, which also contains a relaxation room. The core is the striking MESA radar (Multi-role Active Electronically Scanned Array) from Northrop Grumman on the rear of the machine. With electronic control, the rigid antennas can simultaneously detect and track over 3,000 targets at a distance of up to 370 km. The integrated friend-foe recognition system (IFF) can identify cooperative contacts up to 570 km away with the current Mode 5. For self-protection, the aircraft is equipped with chaff and flares, among other things.

The E-7A executed so far are 33.6 meters long with a wingspan of 35.8 meters. Of the maximum takeoff mass of 77 tons, almost 20 tons are available for payload. Two turbofan engines bring the aircraft to a top speed of 880 km/h. The aircraft is capable of aerial refueling and can therefore achieve a range of over 6,500 km and an operational duration of over nine hours.

NATO says it has operated a fleet of AWACS (E-3A Airborne Warning and Control) aircraft since the 1980s. The AWACS aircraft based at Germany's Geilenkirchen Air Base have taken part in all major NATO operations, including the fight against ISIS and on NATO's eastern flank following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The E-7A will also have its main base in Geilenkirchen and could operate from several forward locations in Europe. The Wedgetail will be part of the Alliance's future surveillance and control project, which will see NATO's next generation of surveillance systems deployed from the mid-2030s.

Gerhard Heiming

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