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A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail, an airborne early warning and control aircraft, has arrived in the Middle East to assist Australia’s contribution to the US-led Global Coalition against Daesh.
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Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said the deployment of the E7-A will support the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in their ongoing fight against terrorism in Iraq.
“The ISF is leading operations to prevent the re-emergence of Daesh in Iraq and in repelling incursions by Daesh into Iraq’s sovereign territory,” Minister Reynolds said.
“Australia has made a significant and continuous contribution to the Global Coalition against Daesh in Iraq and Syria and continues to provide support to Iraq to ensure progress is sustained.”
The aircraft has been deployed to the Air Task Group several times since October 2014. It will link up with the Australian KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft, currently providing air-to-air refuelling capability to a variety of coalition aircraft supporting operations in Iraq and Syria as part of the ADF’s Operation OKRA.
The E-7A Wedgetail is based on a Boeing 737-700, with the addition of an advanced Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array radar and 10 state-of-the-art mission crew consoles, which can track airborne and maritime targets simultaneously.
It is a highly advanced aircraft, providing an airborne early warning and control platform that can gather information from a wide variety of sources, analyse it, and distribute it to other assets.
