Boeing completes first flight of UK E-7 Wedgetail for the Royal Air Force (RAF).

• UK E-7 programme marks significant milestone in the test and evaluation phase
• More than 100 people are modifying three 737 NGs in Birmingham, UK
• E-7 Wedgetail will provide the RAF with advanced Airborne Early Warning & Control capabilities

A Boeing flight-test crew conducted functional checks during the first flight from Birmingham Airport, marking a significant milestone in the programme’s test and evaluation phase.

Currently unpainted, the aircraft is one of three 737 NG aircraft on British soil undergoing modification by a highly skilled team of over 100 people at STS Aviation Services in Birmingham.

“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,” said Stu Voboril, Boeing vice president and E-7 program manager. “Our team is committed to ensuring the E-7 delivers the safety, quality, and capabilities we’ve promised to our customer as we prepare for delivery of the UK’s first E-7 Wedgetail to the RAF.”

Group Captain Richard Osselton, RAF Programme Director for Wedgetail said, “Achieving the first flight of Wedgetail is a significant milestone, representing an outstanding effort from the RAF programme team, DE&S, Boeing and STS Aviation. We will now build on this success and look forward to continuing the Test & Evaluation phase as part of our preparations for the aircraft to enter into service.”

DE&S Director Air Support, Richard Murray, said, “This first flight marks a significant milestone for the programme and for our team who have worked tirelessly with our partners to progress what is a hugely complex endeavour. We are moving forward and will be delivering this critical capability to the RAF.”

The combat-proven E-7 detects and identifies adversarial targets at long range and tracks multiple airborne and maritime threats simultaneously with 360-degree coverage via the Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) sensor. It provides the warfighter with critical multi-domain awareness and command-and-control decision advantage.

“We’re proud of the robust E-7 modification line we’ve stood up in the UK to deliver the RAF’s future Airborne Early Warning & Control fleet,” said Maria Laine, president of Boeing UK, Ireland and the Nordics. “We are committed to delivering this crucial capability to support the UK’s national security and contribute toward regional stability.”

The future UK E-7 fleet will operate from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, where Boeing’s local suppliers and contractors are nearing completion of the infrastructure facilities to support its introduction into service. 

The RAF participates in a tri-lateral agreement with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and U.S. Air Force (USAF) toward cooperative Wedgetail interoperability, capability development, evaluation and testing, sustainment, operations, training, and safety.

The RAAF, the Republic of Korea Air Force, and the Turkish Air Force currently operate the E-7. Boeing is also building two rapid prototype E-7 aircraft for USAF and in 2023, NATO announced the selection of the E-7 for its AEW&C mission. The growing global E-7 fleet provides mission systems interoperability, mission readiness and lifecycle cost advantages, as well as a common technical growth path to stay ahead of global threats.

Later this autumn, following a series of flight tests and further evaluation, the aircraft will depart to a paint facility to receive its RAF livery.

On April 8, 2024, the Department of National Defence (DND) released its much-anticipated Defence Policy Update (DPU) which allocated $307 million over 20 years for airborne early warning aircraft that will vastly improve Canada’s ability to detect, track, and prioritize airborne threats sooner, ensuring a faster, better coordinated response with the United States when required.

This investment is crucial as Canada’s lack of capability in this area over the last several decades has directly led to the country’s inability to not only effectively detect aerial intrusions into North American airspace, but also intercept threats. The latter is clearly demonstrated by the CF-18 fleet’s recent struggles to interdict Russian strategic nuclear bombers in the Far North and the RCAF’s heavy reliance on American F-22s from Alaska to monitor Russian planes and shoot down Chinese spy balloons in Canadian airspace. However, while the federal government’s DPU, ‘Our North, Strong and Free’, mentions the importance of procuring AEW&C aircraft, no specific platform is mentioned. This absence of information is probably due to DND’s desire for a competitive bidding process.

In terms of choices, as a result of the recent retirement of the E-3 Sentry, the E-7 Wedgetail is arguably one of the most robust platforms available on the market and is currently in service with or on contract for Australia, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the U.S. It has a fixed, active electronically scanned array radar antenna which provides 360 degree coverage and is capable of simultaneous air and maritime search and F-35A command and control (C2) with a maximum detection range of over 600 km. The radar antenna array also has a secondary role as a signals intelligence array, with a maximum range of 850 km at an altitude of 30,000 ft.

AEW&C OPTIONS FOR CANADA

Another option would be Saab’s GlobalEye, a multi-domain AEW&C solution. With its mix of modern active and passive sensors, it provides long-range detection and identification of objects in air, at sea and over land. Based on the Global 6000/6500 aircraft family from Canada’s Bombardier, GlobalEye combines Saab’s Erieye Extended Range radar with an advanced suit of sensors and a multi-domain Command and Control (C2) system. The Global 6000/6500 aircraft from Bombardier adds over 11 hours of operational endurance, state-of-the-art avionics, and ideal working conditions for all crew members, making it perfectly suited for AEW&C missions. Read more about AEW&C.