The UK has ordered three E-7 Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft from Boeing (RAF ISTAR on Twitter)
Updated at 7/18/2023 at 07:20am ET to include a UK Ministry of Defense statement saying “savings of £720 million ($943 million)” have been made on the E-7 acquisition and retention of two MESA radars.
BELFAST — A lawmaker report into the state of UK military procurement has delivered a scathing verdict of the Royal Air Force’s E-7A AEW1 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) program, declaring that the acquisition “represents extremely poor value for money.”
Published by the UK Defence Committee today, the report describes a decision to cut an original order of five aircraft to three units as “an absolute folly” in light of such a small number of aircraft being seen as a “prize target” for enemy forces. An Initial Operating Capability target could also be delayed by a further year to 2025, according to the document.
Based on a contract stipulation making the UK MoD liable to pay for all five Northrop Grumman Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radars underwritten in the original order, despite the newer decision to only acquire three aircraft, the procurement report estimates that the E-7 program will cost £1.89 billion ($2.5 billion), only marginally less costly than the £2.1 billion ($2.7 billion) agreed in the original order.
“Even basic arithmetic would suggest that ordering three E-7s rather than five (at some 90 [percent] of the original acquisition cost) represents extremely poor value for money,” the report states.
OPINION: US congress is right, accelerate the E-7 Wedgetail buy
UK procurement arm, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), and manufacturer Boeing are criticized for still being unable to agree on a Full Business Case (FBC) planning phase and an in-service support contract. The report adds that the support contract “should already have been successfully finalised long ago.”
The UK MoD said in a July 18 statement that “through decisions on E-7 we have made savings of £720 million ($943 million)” but declined to comment on why the in-service support contract has still to be agreed with Boeing. Two spare MESA radars will also be retained for “future sustainment requirements, optimising aircraft availability,” added the Ministry.
A RAF spokesperson told Breaking Defense on July 16 that it is working off an “expectation” that the FBC will be delivered in Q3 2023. A date of mid-2023 was previously made public. Representatives for Boeing were unavailable for comment on the report.
A number of other problems referenced in the lawmakers’ document have been widely reported previously. Those include Boeing disclosing aircraft manufacturing setbacks caused by COVID-19 and workforce issues, as well as the decision by the RAF to retire the E-3D Sentry in 2021, leaving a three-year AEW&C capability gap. Boeing said in December 2022 that an average supplier lead time increase of 244 days for E-7 parts had led it to delay a first aircraft delivery to RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland, until 2024.
The UK Defence Committee will also publish a forthcoming aviation procurement that “will likely examine the operational impact and alleged life-cycle savings” from the decision to only acquire three aircraft.
All three Wedgetail platforms are in production at STS Aviation Services modification facility in Birmingham, England, as they have to first be converted from Boeing 737 Next Generation airliners.
“One aircraft has its MESA radar installed… . The other two are following behind,” said Dan Gillian, Vice President of Mobility, Surveillance and Bombers at Boeing, on Friday. “From when the first aircraft to the last come out [of the hangar] for the UK and go into service will be about six months from start to finish.”
He added that prior to delivery to the RAF, the aircraft will go through a “robust” flight test program.
“I’m confident that as the UK brings their capability online, and they and all the allies in the region see what that aircraft can do, I think the demand for E-7 will be there for decades to come,” added Gillian.
Besides industrial matters, Australia, the UK and US signed a Wedgetail “Joint Vision Statement” at the Royal International Air Tattoo earlier this week. The UK MoD noted in a statement that the trilateral agreement “is a commitment by the three nations to work together for mutual benefit through cooperation relating to Wedgetail capability development, evaluation & testing, interoperability, sustainment, operations, training, and safety.”
Already fielded by Australia, the E-7 has been selected by the US Air Force to replace E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, with Boeing handed a $1.2 billion contract to develop a prototype in February 2023.
“We are on contract to build their first two aircraft [for the US] now,” explained Gillian. An additional 24 aircraft are expected to be procured by 2032.
