US AWACS recapitalization for the 21st century

“The big surprise there was [an] unexpected amount and degree of non-recurring engineering required to meet the requirement that the [US] Air Force specified, which we thought was very, very close to what the UK is currently procuring from Boeing,” Hunter said. According to an Air Force spokesperson, that non-recurring engineering work is a major driver in the difficulty to reach an agreement on price.

The service is working with the plane maker to “understand the specificity of what’s kind of implied in the Boeing proposal,” Hunter added, which will help identify features that are essential and those that could either be deferred or deemed unnecessary.
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breakingdefense.com

Air Force 'having a hard time' on E-7 Wedgetail price negotiations with Boeing: Kendall - Breaking Defense

Development of the Air Force’s first two rapid prototype radar planes proved more difficult than expected, according to acquisition chief Andrew Hunter.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
 
TomcatViP said:
breakingdefense.com

Air Force 'having a hard time' on E-7 Wedgetail price negotiations with Boeing: Kendall - Breaking Defense

Development of the Air Force’s first two rapid prototype radar planes proved more difficult than expected, according to acquisition chief Andrew Hunter.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
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What kind of hot garbage of a company is BDS these days? This is a bloody joke. The core specifications shouldn't be that far off from what the RAAF paid for to develop and upgrade and even accounting to new specifications tailored for USAF need, there's no reason for the price to go up that higg when there are so many new orders lined up woth future users.
 
Maro.Kyo said:
What kind of hot garbage of a company is BDS these days? This is a bloody joke. The core specifications shouldn't be that far off from what the RAAF paid for to develop and upgrade and even accounting to new specifications tailored for USAF need, there's no reason for the price to go up that higg when there are so many new orders lined up woth future users.
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It's a company that has taken big losses up front on way too many contracts recently, hoping to make it up later and mostly failing. They desperately need to be certain of a profit going in to a new project or the corporate bosses will have their heads.
 
Latest version of Erieye ER should fit the bill. Boeing is trying to squeeze the money from DoD and NATO to float. And not forget Sweden will be shortly in NATO.
 
Someone here predicted long ago that Boeing and the USAF will be in this very same situation due to the ever peculiar demands of the AF in terms of specifics gears and other electronic equipments.

Well, it seems that's where we are today.
 
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Maro.Kyo said:
What kind of hot garbage of a company is BDS these days? This is a bloody joke. The core specifications shouldn't be that far off from what the RAAF paid for to develop and upgrade and even accounting to new specifications tailored for USAF need, there's no reason for the price to go up that higg when there are so many new orders lined up woth future users.
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You want to bet on that?
 
The USAF probably has a lot of extra toys it wanted on the aircraft beyond the basic radar fit out, especially in terms of datalinks and other coms. A RAF bird doesn't have to worry about the intraflight data link for instance, and might ignore MADL and just dictate that F-35s need to light off their Link16 if they want to share. And that's just the kind of pedestrian stuff we know about without any secret squirrel details.
 
Also, I bet that Boeing is no longer willing to take a loss on one-time engineering charges. Not when everyone is having to write off losses on contracts in the design stages or in LRIP.

"Nope, you pay full price now."
 
www.airandspaceforces.com

Sticker Shock Drags Out USAF's E-7 Negotiations with Boeing

A deal is expected soon on the Air Force's buy of E-7 airborne battle management jets, but negotiations are stuck on the development price.
www.airandspaceforces.com www.airandspaceforces.com

The Air Force won’t say what it thinks is a fair cost for the E-7, but in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said a figure of $2.5 billion per airplane is rumored, and neither Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall nor Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin challenged that figure.
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An Air Force spokesperson said the $2.5 billion per jet figure is “inaccurate,” but declined to comment further.

The E-7s in question would be prototypes, and that cost would not necessarily correlate to the other 24 Wedgetails the Air Force plans to buy
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Well, I still believe, and that dearly, that they aren't crazy enought to jack up the prices that much. Though, even still, it sounds absurd... One way or the other, I seriously think that the programme should see some competition, and IAI CAEW has been a joint programme with L3 Harris for a while.

For dozens of aircraft, I don't think it would be far-fetched to think the L3 would be able to setup local production and localize the aircraft to an extent so that it conforms to Buy America.
 

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