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Boeing has officially completed the construction of the UK Royal Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft ahead of the completion of in-country flight testing.
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Currently unpainted, the aircraft is one of three 737 NG aircraft on British soil undergoing modification by a highly skilled team of over 100 people at STS Aviation Services in Birmingham.
This first aircraft has also completed flight-test crew-conducted functional checks during the first flight from Birmingham Airport, marking a significant milestone in the program’s test and evaluation phase.
Stu Voboril, Boeing vice-president and E-7 program manager, welcomed this milestone, saying, “This safe and systematic functional check flight is an important step for Boeing and the RAF as part of our rigorous and extensive testing and evaluation. Our team is committed to ensuring the E-7 delivers the safety, quality, and capabilities we’ve promised to our customer as we prepare for delivery of the UK’s first E-7 Wedgetail to the RAF.”
Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail brings a combat-proven platform capable of identifying adversarial targets at long range and tracks multiple airborne and maritime threats simultaneously with 360-degree coverage via the Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) sensor.
The E-7 provides the warfighter with critical multi-domain awareness and command-and-control decision advantage.
Group Captain Richard Osselton, RAF program director for Wedgetail, said, “Achieving the first flight of Wedgetail is a significant milestone, representing an outstanding effort from the RAF program team, DE&S, Boeing and STS Aviation. We will now build on this success and look forward to continuing the test and evaluation phase as part of our preparations for the aircraft to enter into service.”
The future UK E-7 fleet will operate from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, where Boeing’s local suppliers and contractors are nearing completion of the infrastructure facilities to support its introduction into service.
DE&S director air support, Richard Murray, added, “This first flight marks a significant milestone for the program and for our team who have worked tirelessly with our partners to progress what is a hugely complex endeavour. We are moving forward and will be delivering this critical capability to the RAF.”
The RAF participates in a trilateral agreement with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and US Air Force (USAF) towards cooperative Wedgetail interoperability, capability development, evaluation and testing, sustainment, operations, training, and safety.
The Royal Australian Air Force was the launch customer for the E-7 Wedgetail platform and was joined by the Republic of Korea Air Force and the Turkish Air Force who currently operates the E-7.
Maria Laine, president of Boeing UK, Ireland and the Nordics, said, “We’re proud of the robust E-7 modification line we’ve stood up in the UK to deliver the RAF’s future Airborne Early Warning & Control fleet. We are committed to delivering this crucial capability to support the UK’s national security and contribute toward regional stability.”
Boeing is also building two rapid prototype E-7 aircraft for USAF, and in 2023, NATO announced the selection of the E-7 for its early warning and control mission. The growing global E-7 fleet provides mission systems interoperability, mission readiness and life cycle cost advantages, as well as a common technical growth path to stay ahead of global threats.
Later this year, following a series of flight tests and further evaluation, the aircraft will depart to a paint facility to receive its RAF livery.
