“Of course, I would like to be part of an open competition when it comes to airborne early warning and surveillance,” Saab CEO Micael Johansson said. "But whether that's possible or not in the US, I don't know."
“I’m very confident that the Air Force is choosing the E-7 to replace its E-3 fleet,” Mike Manazir, Boeing’s vice president for defense business development, said during a news conference ahead of the Dubai Airshow.
It’s about improving existing platforms with autonomy, and applying AI, edge computing, quantum encryption, and sensor fusion.
As the service works to procure the required number of E-7As as quickly as possible, it should simultaneously implement a comprehensive plan to expedite the training of US Air Force pilots and air battle management crews.
Some might argue that the Air Force should transition directly from the E-3 to an unmanned airborne early warning and control capability instead of acquiring the E-7. There are several problems with that approach.
The upcoming sole source contract to Boeing for more data on the Wedgetail suggests that the service may seek to eschew a competition.
The Air Force has valiantly breathed life into the decades-old E-3 Sentry platform, but as top service officials recently suggested, it can no longer wait for the jump to space-based systems, the authors write in this op-ed. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Bradley Bowman, Maj. Lauren Harrison and Ryan Brobst argue that as Russia […]
The jet-powered transport’s speed, survivability and multi-mission agility position it as a viable option to the C-130 for the US and NATO allies.
Acquiring the Wedgetail "gives us a path" while the service awaits a space-based capability, Air Force Chief of Staff CQ Brown said, as "an option to be able to get the capability much faster than if we were to start a new start from scratch."
Although retiring the B-2 fleet could save the Air Force nearly $3 billion, CSIS cautions that doing so "would leave the nation without a long-range penetrating strike aircraft and would weaken the airborne component of the nuclear triad."
NATO HQ: As Central Command continues to hammer Daesh with bombs, rockets, bullets, and more, that’s straining the limited supply of AWACS, the airborne radar/command post aircraft that form the backbone of a modern air campaign. “That’s a capability under stress,” a senior NATO diplomat told reporters here. AWACS is one of those classic “high-demand, low-density” […]