{"id":14158,"date":"2023-03-05T07:19:25","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T05:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=14158"},"modified":"2025-05-06T23:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:16:25","slug":"us-air-force-awards-1-2-billion-contract-for-26-e-7-aircraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/us-air-force-awards-1-2-billion-contract-for-26-e-7-aircraft\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force awards $1.2 billion contract for 26 E-7 aircraft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a $1.2 billion worth contract for a fleet of 26 E-7A battle management and command-and-control aircraft to replace its aging fleet of E-3 Sentry AWCS planes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally produced for the Royal Australian Air Force, the E-7 is also called the Wedgetail due to its distinct design features. Due to an evident success with the Royal Australian Air Force, the Wedgetail became a certain candidate to replace the E-3 for the U.S. Air Force. The United Kingdom, South Korea, and Turkey also fly the E-7 and plan to buy the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-7 is based on the Boeing 737\u2019s airframe. It uses the 737-700 narrowbody as the aircraft base. It used an electronically scanning radar, rather than the much older 707 used for the E-3, which has a less capable mechanically scanning radar. Australia was the first customer for the plane and has deployed it in Iraq and Syria alongside the U.S. military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Air Force said that the E-7 would enhance the airborne moving target indication capabilities with better command and control. The E-7 can also carry a wide array of powerful electronic radars for better airborne battle management which would also help the long-range strike capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said in an official statement that “The E-7 will be the principal airborne sensor for detecting, identifying, tracking and reporting all airborne activity to joint force commanders.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter further said that the Wedgetail “will enable greater airborne battlespace awareness through its precise, real-time air picture and will be able to control and direct individual aircraft under a wide range of environmental and operational conditions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Royal Australian Air Force Boeing E-7A Wedgetail (737-7ES) Aircraft. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons\/Tom\u00e1s Del Coro)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The new fleet of E-7 aircraft is expected to join the U.S. Air Force in 2027. The order is a part of the U.S. Air Force\u2019s efforts to modernize its battlefield management systems. Currently, the U.S. Air Force relies on a fleet of E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System planes that dates to the 1970s. The U.S. Air Force plans to retire 15 of its E-3 aircraft, nearly half of the current operating fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We conducted a thorough analysis of viable industry options to ensure the selected E-3 replacement could meet the specific needs of the U.S. Until the E-7A is fielded, we will continue to rely on the E-3 AWACS,” Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The rapid prototyping program will integrate U.S.-based mission systems into the existing airborne platform to meet requirements while simultaneously ensuring interoperability with the coalition and allied partners already operating the E-7,” Hunter added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a contract for a fleet of 26 E-7A battle management and command-and-control aircraft to replace its aging fleet of E-3 Sentry AWCS planes. The contract is worth $1.2 billion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,125],"tags":[227,256,136,899,315,6,688,7,240],"class_list":["post-14158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-air-force","tag-aircraft","tag-australia","tag-awacs","tag-boeing","tag-defense","tag-e-7","tag-u-s","tag-usaf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/RAAF-E-7A-Aircraft.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-3Gm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14158"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14173,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14158\/revisions\/14173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}