The schedule for restoring the UK Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) lapsed airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) capability has slipped again, with its lead Boeing E-7A Wedgetail now expected to enter operational use in 2026.
“We should have the first of the Wedgetails with us by the end of the year and in operational capability next year,” says Andy Start, the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) acting National Armaments Director and chief executive of its Defence Equipment and Support organisation.
“The E-7 capability is late, and they have had real technical and delivery issues within Boeing in delivering that aircraft,” Start told the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on 28 April.
“The good news is that it has had a huge amount of attention from me and others to get it back on track,” he adds.
While the MoD has yet to approve a full business case for the programme or reveal its likely eventual cost, Start notes: “Wedgetail is actually going to cost less than the original programme expectation.
“We were originally buying five [aircraft], and we reduced that to three in an earlier SDR [Strategic Defence Review] round, and because it is a fixed-price programme, the expectation is that Boeing will still deliver to the price,” he says.
Describing the latest schedule over-run as “a timescale issue”, he notes that Boeing “has leaned in with serious amounts of resource and stuck with that programme to make sure it is delivered”.
The RAF’s first of three heavily-modified Boeing 737NGs made its first flight in Wedgetail guise last September, launching a test and evaluation campaign.
“We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Defence and Royal Air Force on the modification and delivery of the E-7 Wedgetail in order to meet their mission needs,” says Boeing, which is delivering the programme with aircraft conversion partner STS Aviation Services.
The RAF has lacked a dedicated AEW&C capability since retiring its last Boeing E-3D Sentry aircraft in 2021.
“The E-7 is a critical national capability, and it is really important we deliver it,” Start says. Once delivered, the fleet will be assigned to the RAF’s 8 Sqn at its Lossiemouth base in Scotland.
In a separate development affecting the E-7A, a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) example of the adapted narrowbody recently underwent in-flight refuelling behind a US Air Force (USAF) Boeing KC-46A tanker in the USA, completing a certification activity for the pairing. The RAAF has a six-strong fleet of the surveillance type.
The activity was conducted with the involvement of personnel from AUKUS partner nations Australia, the UK and the USA.
“The trilateral test allowed the UK and US Air Force to gain early test experience ahead of their anticipated fielding of E-7 aircraft variants,” the RAF says. The USAF aims to introduce a 26-strong fleet of the type, with two development aircraft on order.
“This hands-on experience provided critical early exposure as the RAF begins their own flight test programme,” the UK service says.
