Originally Posted by
George K Lee
Except that the engine used on the E-3 went out of production when the E-3 did, more than 25 years ago. The generation that succeeded it is also going OOP, replaced by the LEAP.
Ummm, no. Not completely true. The -2s on the AWACS and E-6s are OOP, but the -7s on the NG 737 (thousands built) are not and will be flying for quite some time. Further, the C-40 fleet, the Wedgetail, and the P-8 fleet all are equipped with -7s and thus will be around for quite some time, with the production line likely continuing for some time. Going from -2 to -7 would be a rather small generational jump. Putting LEAP engines on the AWACS aircraft will require significantly more of a development effort with not that much return on that additional investment.
That being said, will it make sense to keep those airframes going, or just replace them with something new? Like a 767 AWACS? Or more likely a 737 based Wedgetail? Or maybe even something based on a large biz-jet. It'll depend a lot on how much processing they want to do on-board vs how much raw radar data they want to datalink and then process off-board. If they're willing to do very high bandwidth datalinking of raw radar data with off-board processing, then something un manned might do the job. But there's only so much available real-time bandwidth. The last thing they want to do is use up the bandwidth and end up constraining everything else that needs robust comms. So my guess is that they'll opt for on-board processing. Which likely also means on-board decision makers. Which would seem to favor something a bit bigger than the biz jets. Maybe a 100 seat airliner, like the Embraer E-195 and Bombardier CS-100? Boeing's betting that the bottom end of the 737 range is just right. Who knows?