E-7 Wedgetail

Australia and US-led AEW&C aircraft built on a Boeing 737-700, equipped with a fixed MESA AESA radar — the successor to the E-3 Sentry across NATO and a growing allied fleet.

Overview

The Boeing E-7A Wedgetail is a 737-700-based airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) platform fielded first by the Royal Australian Air Force and subsequently adopted by South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and NATO as the definitive replacement for the ageing E-3 Sentry AWACS fleet. At its centre is the Northrop Grumman Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar, a fixed dorsal “top-hat” array that provides simultaneous 360° air and maritime surveillance without the mechanical rotodome of its predecessors.

Development

Boeing designed the Wedgetail for Australia’s Project Wedgetail, the country’s effort to acquire a modern AEW&C capability. The first aircraft flew in 2004, and the Royal Australian Air Force accepted its initial E-7A in 2009. The baseline airframe is a heavily modified Boeing 737-700IGW, and the mission-system prime integrator was Boeing Defence Australia with Northrop Grumman supplying the MESA radar. After the Australian lead, South Korea procured four “Peace Eye” aircraft and Turkey received four “Peace Eagle” examples, followed by a UK order for three aircraft under the name “Wedgetail AEW1,” and a long-debated US Air Force acquisition that survived a 2025 cancellation when Congress provided roughly $400 million to continue work on two prototypes, according to FlightGlobal.

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