WASHINGTON — The US Air Force has awarded two separate, sole-source contracts to Boeing to continue development of the embattled E-7 Wedgetail, according to a Defense Department notice.
The first award exercises an existing option worth $2.3 billion. A separate contract valued at $99.3 million addresses diminishing manufacturing sources for the aircraft’s radar. All told, the two awards raise the value of the E-7 contract to just over $5 billion, the Pentagon said in a daily roundup of contracts posted Thursday evening.
The awards come after the service’s attempt last year to cancel the Wedgetail was rejected by lawmakers, who ordered the Air Force to continue development of the radar plane in the fiscal 2026 budget. An Air Force spokesperson said the contracts satisfy that congressional directive and will be used to buy developmental aircraft.
“In accordance with the Fiscal Year 2026 Consolidated Appropriations Act, the Department of the Air Force (DAF) has approved an updated acquisition strategy for the E-7A Wedgetail program. This strategy executes Congressional direction to continue development and transition to an Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase,” the spokesperson said.
“This strategy continues the prototyping and development effort through the execution of two sole-source contract actions with Boeing, which include exercising one pre-priced option and awarding one new modification,” they added. “The aircraft acquired for the EMD phase will allow the Air Force to mature the system design, conduct risk reduction, and perform comprehensive test and verification activities in accordance with Congressional intent.” (It’s not clear how many EMD aircraft are being procured.)
Despite the awards, neither contracts nor the statement from the Air Force commit to an eventual production decision, meaning the jet’s future could still be in limbo. As Air Force Secretary Meink explained recently, the service will follow congressional guidance and provide a plan for the future of the E-7 fleet — originally envisioned to be as many as 26 aircraft — to lawmakers, though that doesn’t mean the Air Force itself will fund the program.
“Deliver a plan does not mean we’re going to put it in the budget,” Meink said Feb. 24 in a roundtable with reporters at the Air and Space Forces Association conference. “We’ll deliver a plan of what it takes to do it.”
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Earlier this week, the Air Force released a request for information exploring a business case for sustaining an E-7 fleet, apparently laying the groundwork for maintaining the aircraft should the service eventually go down that path.
Originally meant to serve as a replacement for the aging E-3 Sentry or AWACS, the E-7 provides a comprehensive picture of the airspace while also serving as a hub for battle managers to direct forces in the field. Based on the Boeing 737 NG commercial airliner, the Wedgetail also sports a distinctive radar dubbed a “top hat” manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
A Boeing spokesperson said in a statement that the company is “proud to support the U.S. Air Force’s Airborne Early Warning & Control fleet with unmatched capabilities for greater situational awareness and battle management. We’re committed to providing our customers operational advantage for mission success.” A Northrop spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Price increases and survivability concerns for the Wedgetail drove the decision to cancel the program. Officials also reasoned that new technologies mean the E-7’s task of tracking airborne targets, known as air moving target indication (AMTI), can be shifted to satellites.
Critics of the plane’s cancellation argue instead for a layered sensing architecture, where ground-, air- and space-based systems provide more comprehensive coverage and secure redundancies. It’s not clear exactly when space-based AMTI will be ready. As recently as 2024, Pentagon officials like Gen. Michael Guetlein, who now serves as the czar of the Golden Dome missile defense project, envisioned a layered approach.
The E-7 is used in current operations: Australia recently announced it would deploy one of its Wedgetails to the Middle East to help detect Iranian missiles and drones that have battered Gulf countries in recent weeks. The E-7 has also been deployed to aid Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
The US’s seesawing Wedgetail acquisition has rippled through Europe. NATO selected the E-7 to replace its own fleet of aging E-3s, but the US’s cold feet prompted the alliance to halt its procurement of the aircraft and explore alternatives.
But now that the US may be warming up to the aircraft again, a NATO E-7 order could be in play once more, Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, America’s top military commander in the region, said Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Depending on where the United States goes considering E-7 in the future, it may be back on the table or it may not, but we’re looking at it closely,” he said.