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UK orders Boeing E7...

It says so here...

Quote:

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has signed a $1.98Bn deal to purchase five E-7 aircraft.
The E-7 fleet will replace the current Sentry aircraft and ensure the continued delivery of the UK’s Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) capability.Named “Wedgetail” by the Australian Department for Defence, the E-7 aircraft can fly for long periods of time and manage the battlespace from the sky.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:The E-7 provides a technological edge in an increasingly complex battlespace, allowing our ships and aircraft to track and target adversaries more effectively than ever. This deal also strengthens our vital military partnership with Australia.
We will operate state-of-the-art F-35 jets and world-class Type-26 warships, and this announcement will help us work even more closely together to tackle the global threats we face.

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, said:Today’s announcement about the procurement of five E-7 ‘Wedgetail’ Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft is excellent news for both the RAF and wider Defence.
This world-class capability, already proven with our Royal Australian Air Force partners, will significantly enhance our ability to deliver decisive airborne command and control and builds on the reputation of our E3D Sentry Force.Along with Defence’s investment in other cutting-edge aircraft, E-7 will form a core element of the Next Generation Air Force, able to overcome both current and future complex threats.

The new fleet will be able to track multiple airborne and maritime targets at the same time, using the information it gathers to provide situational awareness and direct other assets such as fighter jets and warships.
The E-7 is a proven aircraft that is currently in-service with the Royal Australian Air Force and has been used on operations in the battle against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

The E-7 is based on a standard Boeing 737 NG airliner modified to carry a sophisticated Northrop Grumman active electronically-scanned radar.
This can cover four million square kilometres over a 10-hour period.Modification of the aircraft will be carried out in the UK, sustaining over 200 highly skilled jobs at Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group in Cambridge, and there will also be opportunities for British suppliers to be involved in future training and support arrangements.

This announcement builds on a growing military capability and industrial relationship between the UK and Australia, after the Australian government selected the British Type 26 design for its future frigate.

I wonder if we'll call it the Wedgetail like they do Down Under?

I wonder how much we are going to change the design so that it meets UK requirements?...

And will we lead on the proposed mid-life updates, absorbing the costs and risks?.

Marshalls of Cambridge are modifying them?

i hope that goes smoother than the Tristar upgrades.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saintsman (Post 10426682)

I wonder how much we are going to change the design so that it meets UK requirements?...

I thought the usual UK method was to rip out all the perfectly good equipment, give loads of money to BAE to integrate an untested, questionable, mix of gear to get it to the proper level of UK content....

Isn’t this a good news story? Why are the first several posts all so bl00dy miserable?!

BV

Quote:

I wonder if we'll call it the Wedgetail like they do Down Under?

Possibly the Wedgie here, as there are bound to be cracks appear ;)

Just let's hope we have sufficent numbers in place to fly them. mind you it makes leaving for Queasyjet etc much smoother having 737 experience ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Viking (Post 10426703)

Isn’t this a good news story? Why are the first several posts all so bl00dy miserable?!

BV

Bob,

You're correct it is good news, but don't be too harsh. Cynicism is often born from experience above all else.

Great news of this future purchase, my only slight concern is five replacing seven aircraft !
obviously it comes down to money,is the five enough?

5 will be far more serviceable/reliable than the current “7”. And more capable at the same time.

but yes, it would be nice if the RAF could get a couple more.

Fallmonk, it seems only four E-3s are currently available for ops.

It would be 5 replacing 6, the seventh one was removed from service years ago and stripped down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandiego89 (Post 10426700)

That depends on if we are buying the platform as a Foreign Military Sale like the P-8s. If that is the case you contractually won't be able to rip anything out good or bad.

With the contract value given in dollars rather than pounds, let's all hope Brexit is the success that's been promised. If it's not and the pound tanks this is going to become very unaffordable very quickly, magic money tree or not.

Wll it have the Max's software? :E

CG

Do they come with a free tanker?

Probably buy them, get them stripped out and leased to Ryanair like the Air Taker 330s!

Why no orders from the USAF?

I wonder what they will do with the AWAC, sell them on?

i take it they will need to modified to hose and drogue for RAF Service.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brewster Buffalo (Post 10427105)

Why no orders from the USAF?

Because their E-3 fleet is up to date having had full investment?

It'd be hard to operate 'closely' with the Ozmates if they were to 'customise' it's capability.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buster Hyman (Post 10427182)

It'd be hard to operate 'closely' with the Ozmates if they were to 'customise' it's capability.

737 lacks the range to operate with the Aussies closely regardless of capability!

I think what we are getting at here is that the RAF and RAAF will operate closely in Coalition type Ops (read ME) and given membership of the Five Eyes community, information sharing will be ongoing.

What is more important is buying into the continuous upgrades... share the cost between the RAF/RAAF and avoid having the sustainment problem the E3D became.

Quote:

Originally Posted by weemonkey (Post 10427110)

Isn't the ng line closed??

No, it's not. And there are no current plans to shut down the NG line - there are still commercial NG deliveries scheduled, and the NG will remain the basis for the P-7 and P-8 indefinitely.

Quote:

Originally Posted by camelspyyder (Post 10427159)

Because their E-3 fleet is up to date having had full investment?

USAF’s E-3C/G fleet is managing a very similar serviceability rate as the RAF jets. They have not been fully invested in at all in terms of the airframe.

There’s absolutely no point installing block 40/45 if you’re not going to do something about extending the life of the airframe. Bad times at Tinker.

i take it they will need to modified to hose and drogue for RAF Service.

NL

That is not the plan with the P8 so why this ac? Pity we chose PFI convenience over STANAG compliance.

Aren't AWACS short lived these days - not like the last one we had

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saintsman (Post 10426682)

I wonder how much we are going to change the design so that it meets UK requirementto it.s?...

Probably not a lot, It should come with a pie warmer as a standard fit. We were not big on the US Foreman grill. Hopefully the MOU has been written up properly and we can get a percent on FMS sales. To recover some of our developmental investment. We sunk a lot of money into it to fix it. It was a problematic programme.

The good news is that the yanks really liked it when it was deployed to the ME

I am a bit out of touch but assuming the E7 is purchased how many RAF aircraft will require a Boom for AAR?

But the MOD considers Air Tanker fit for purpose and the people whose promotions floated on Air Tanker are now comfortably retired and working as non execs somewhere in the MIC?

Quote:

Originally Posted by vascodegama (Post 10427354)

i take it they will need to modified to hose and drogue for RAF Service.

NL

That is not the plan with the P8 so why this ac? Pity we chose PFI convenience over STANAG compliance.

we could swap out a few of those hose and drogues for boomers....

P8, C17, E7, Rivet Joint plus interoperability with the USA would mean it makes sense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VinRouge (Post 10427430)

we could swap out a few of those hose and drogues for boomers....

P8, C17, E7, Rivet Joint plus interoperability with the USA would mean it makes sense.

Making sense is one thing , just how do we think the contract change would go?

Quote:

Originally Posted by vascodegama (Post 10427440)

Making sense is one thing , just how do we think the contract change would go?

Offload some drogue-only airframes to a consortium of European nations looking to increase AAR capacity and replace with new-build boom-equipped variants was the rough plan, I thought...

From a pedantic spotter PoV the "E-7" marketing name is annoying. The next in the official MDS sequence is actually E-12, but no US service has applied for that since none use this derivative.

Boeing should really have known that since the original E-7 was a 707 derivative, later redesignated EC-18B.

The MoD is actually contracting for five 737-7ES, which of course have a different airframe than the 737-8FV ( Poseidon ).

Spotting mode off.

As I've posted elsewhere, this strikes me as unalloyed good news. The Australians have spent a lot of time and effort over the last few years ironing out all the bugs and maturing the E7 into what by all accounts is a superb capability. Building on that, the aircraft is also currently being put through an A$580m upgrade programme, all the phases of which are due to be fully rolled out by mid 2022. Perfect timing. Unusually, we have (and are taking) the opportunity to step in at precisely the right time and benefit from all these hard yards having been done. It will deliver a huge uplift in capability - great outcome. Assuming of course that we don't b*gger it up by insisting on UK customisation (pie warmer aside), but I think that lesson has finally been learned (witness C17 and P8) and I doubt we'll have that problem here.

Easy

So do we go for the MRTT -the only boom version at the moment ? What would that do for the contract? Not my PFI but I suspect that would complicate the 3PR side of things somewhat, hence would be a very expensive contract change.

Do we go for boom addition to a Voyager-this would be a new version so who pays for the development?

Who would we dump the existing frames on- I thought that the europeans wanted a tanker with both systems.

Just remind me what PFI stands for!