Air Force already planning upgrades to yet-to-be-fielded E-7A Wedgetail

The Air Force is already looking for ways to upgrade the E-7A Wedgetail, before the first prototypes are even completed, according to a notice posted by the service this week.

The request for information calls for potential “cutting-edge” technologies that could be incorporated onto what the service called an “advanced E-7A,” such as new sensors, communications systems and electronic-warfare defense systems.

Contracts for such upgrades wouldn’t be awarded until at least fiscal year 2027, according to the notice -- about one year before the first Wedgetail prototype is scheduled for delivery.

Boeing is working on the two rapid prototypes of the Wedgetail -- a modified Boeing 737-700 fitted with a Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array sensor from Northrop Grumman -- with the first scheduled for delivery in FY-28, according to previous Defense Department documents.

“The existing E-7A Rapid Prototyping (RP) program is intended as a speed-to-ramp effort to resolve urgent capability gaps existing within the E-3 Sentry fleet,” the notice states. “The Government intentionally did not include emerging new capabilities in the RP effort.”

E-7A is intended as the Air Force’s next Air Moving Target Indicator and battle management, command and control platform, replacing the aging E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System.

Boeing and the Air Force inked a $2.6 billion contract for the two prototypes last year after a protracted negotiation period.

The Air Force will make a production decision next fiscal year on the two “operationally representative” prototypes, and the service expects to buy up to 26 E-7As by FY-32.

Partner nations Australia, Turkey and South Korea each operate variations of the Wedgetail, with deliveries to those countries starting more than a decade ago. Deliveries of the platform to the U.K. are several years delayed.