Boeing E-7 Wedgetail AEW&C

I see the RAF's first Wedgie has been assigned the serial WT001. I believe WT002 and WT003 have been reserved for the other two.
 
Is there any logic left in the allocation of serials?

(Is there even any point providing serials any more given there are so few airframes?)
 
Hood said:
Is there any logic left in the allocation of serials?

(Is there even any point providing serials any more given there are so few airframes?)
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Well it helps keep track, for accounting purposes, of all the drones etc that have had serials allocated in the last 40+ years. Back in the 1980s I remember it being said that MoD hadn’t a clue what it possessed!
 
Hood said:
Is there any logic left in the allocation of serials?

(Is there even any point providing serials any more given there are so few airframes?)
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Serial numbers exist basically for tracking what has been done to which item. And, in a general sense, to see who has what.
 
Isn't the USAF going to be replacing its' E-3 Sentries in the near future with the E-7 Wedgetail?
 
NMaude said:
Isn't the USAF going to be replacing its' E-3 Sentries in the near future with the E-7 Wedgetail?
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Hence the line in the linked article in the first post:
The USAF E-7 builds on that baseline by upgrading to OMS standards, upgrades to networks and other classified enhancements.
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Here is the thread about the USAF E-7... note that the announcement is in post #116 at the bottom of the 3rd page. https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/us-awacs-recapitalization-for-the-21st-century.37901/
 
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bring_it_on said:
It is the configuration that the USAF is getting and NATO beyond that as well.
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Cool - the UK MOD has a habit of creating dead-ends that it then needs to unwind later - eg the Apaches that were gold-plated, only for that gold-plating having to be removed at great cost so that they could be upgraded.
 
That gold plating actually worked well though. The 'upgrades' in the new birds on the other hand may have not been worth the overall loss of capabilities, let alone the cost (the U.S. has gone down quite a few dead ends itself in recent times, in the name of 'Transformation', 'Netcentric warfare' and such). Not to mention the throwing aside of British needs in the process, both operational and industrial.
 
The requirement for introducing commonality with P-8 made a ton of sense since the P-8 is a larger program, and actually in production whereas the E-7 had to be brought back into production following the RAF order. Going forward, maintaining commonality will save cost not to mention improve capability given its a good upgrade.
 
Jensy said:
I dearly hope this nickname catches on.

"Felon caught by Wedgie" is a headline I need to see.
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Watch out. GTX will ban you.

I'm sure it will catch on, thanks to the British penchant for catchy names: Jezza, Gazza, Bozza, Degsy, Chalkie, Dusty.

Hopefully as the callsign.

Anyway, nice to see them taking shape and in the air.

Chris
 
sigh, there are no words (also note the 'personalised' serial no.) ...
 

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Regarding the vulnerability of this type of platform: it should boted that they spend the overwhelming majority of their work operating in peacetime, and even in war, against non peers. I think even the VKS would struggle to kill an AWACs protected by fifth gen aircraft; I suspect their fighters would struggle to make it to the FEBA. For the U.S. facing the PRC, other options need to be developed. But even then an AWACs is perfectly useful in peacetime.
 
aim9xray said:
Buried in the story: "The E-7 Wedgetail has also recently been selected by NATO as their next command and control aircraft." I, for one, missed this news.
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20 years too late... Granted there were a couple of problems during its development but Turkey, South Korea and Australia were spot on for procuring this aircraft when it first came out.

I don't know if they've changed anything from the base design for these new-found customers; i mean It's an excellent AEW aircraft but I also think that it needs to go under a quarter life update real soon.
 
Josh_TN said:
Regarding the vulnerability of this type of platform: it should boted that they spend the overwhelming majority of their work operating in peacetime, and even in war, against non peers. I think even the VKS would struggle to kill an AWACs protected by fifth gen aircraft; I suspect their fighters would struggle to make it to the FEBA. For the U.S. facing the PRC, other options need to be developed. But even then an AWACs is perfectly useful in peacetime.
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What's the particular influence of generation in defca? It isn't about fair fight.
Toolset against AWACS is extreme range AAMs and SAMs.
VKS is tied with PLAAF as world leader in those.
 
Ainen said:
What's the particular influence of generation in defca? It isn't about fair fight.
Toolset against AWACS is extreme range AAMs and SAMs.
VKS is tied with PLAAF as world leader in those.
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The Israelis have shown that western level air forces can deal with Russia's 'world class' ADS when needed.
 

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