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No plans for more E-7s as UK AEW capacity shortage becomes a gap

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No plans for more E-7s as UK AEW capacity shortage becomes a gap

A MESA radar is fitted to the first E-7 Wedgetail destined for the RAF. Credit: DE&S

The UK’s new Labour government, which came to power in a dramatic election victory in July 2024, has said it has no plans to increase the number of vital E-7 Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft currently being built for the Royal Air Force (RAF).

With rumours of a UK government budget shortfall, the outlook for defence, which the National Audit Office has said was already facing a funding shortfall, could become bleak once the recently announced findings of the Strategic Defence Review are released in 2025.

With the UK government stating on 25 July that there are “no current plans” to order more E-7 Wedgetail aircraft for the RAF, the best-case scenario for the programme appears to be to maintain the purchase of three aircraft, which is at best the bare minimum required to perform national roles.

In the worst case, three RAF E-7 AEW&C aircraft will not be sufficient.

Under a 2019 deal, then-British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson stated that five E-7s would be purchased in a multi-billion dollar deal. This order was subsequently reduced to just three airframes as a cost-saving measure, a significant reduction in AEW coverage from the RAF’s previous fleet of seven E-3D AWACS.

The RAF E-3D fleet’s last operational mission was in 2021. With the first E-7 not due to arrive until 2025, this would mean no airborne warnings would need to be provided to UK defences for at least four years.

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In reality, it is likely to be at least another six months before initial operational capability can be achieved, as flight and system testing will need to be carried out after delivery. The UK AEW capability gap will therefore already have existed for five years.

According to figures released in December 2022, the three E-7 Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft scheduled to enter service with the UK’s RAF would cost £630 million ($810.7 million) each, despite savings from scaling back the planned purchase of an initial five platforms.

In revising the planned acquisition, the UK Ministry of Defence has shaved £265 million off the expected programme cost for the three aircraft to £1.89 billion, down from the original £2.155 billion. The original business case had called for an outlay of just under $2 billion for the entire fleet of five aircraft.

E-7 Wedgetail: Program Progress

STS Aviation Group is converting its three pre-owned Boeing 737NG aircraft to the E-7 Wedgetail configuration at its Birmingham, United Kingdom, facility. The first Northrop Grumman Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) surveillance radar has been installed on the main apron.

As revealed in 2021, the first two aircraft in the E-7 program, which is based on the 737 Next Generation aircraft, were initially operated by commercial airlines in China and Hong Kong, before being acquired by US manufacturer Boeing through a broker.

The UK will purchase a total of five MESA radars, but only three E-7 aircraft. Credit: DE&S

Earlier this year, Britain’s former Conservative government stated that the first E-7 aircraft would not arrive in the UK until autumn 2025. The first E-7 Wedgetail was expected to be delivered to the UK Ministry of Defence in 2024, following completion of the flight programme and initial certification activities.

Bizarrely, the UK will buy Northrop Grumman’s fourth and fifth MESA radars despite not having an aircraft on which to mount the sensors, it was revealed by Air Force Technology mid 2023.