According to a report in the U.S. defense news on June 28, the U.S. Air Force specifically proposed in its budget for fiscal 2026 to cancel the E-7“Wedge Tail” early warning aircraft procurement plan, the move marks another impasse in the Air Force’s upgrade of its early-warning aircraft. Although the Air Force has proposed the purchase of Navy E-2D Early Warning aircraft and the use of space satellites to replace the early warning aircraft idea, but these measures have their own shortcomings, can not solve the United States Air Force early warning capability decline dilemma.
US Navy E-2D Early Warning aircraft
E-3 retirement crisis
According to defense news, the Air Force will cut and redistribute about 8 percent of its defense spending in the new fiscal year budget in response to U.S. Defense Secretary Hercules’ Directive, including accelerated decommissioning of all 162 A-10 attack aircraft, as well as 62 F-16C/D fighters, 21 F-15E fighters, 13 F-15C/D fighters, 14 C-130h Hercules transport aircraft and three EC-130H electronic warfare aircraft and other obsolete and old military aircraft. And because the procurement cost of the new E-7 Wedgetail has increased from US $588 million to US $724 million, and development has been delayed by at least nine months, pentagon officials said the Air Force would cancel its procurement plans.
Reported that this will be a major change in the U. S. Air Force. The Air Force is retiring the aging E-3 Watchtower, which had been named the“Best successor.”. The E-3, the air force’s most famous early-warning aircraft model, has been in service since the late 1970s and has been in the spotlight in a series of local conflicts. But now its service life is nearing its end, and its performance is deficient in many ways. In 2022, Kenneth Willsbach, then head of the US Pacific Air Force, admitted publicly that the air force’s E-3 watchtower aircraft faced“Serious obsolescence problems” and could not adapt to future battlefield needs. “The PAF has four E-3s, but because of maintenance problems they are often in a situation where they can not be deployed together,” he said. This is because the E-3s have been in service for too long, the machine is aging seriously, the related parts have stopped production, daily maintenance is becoming more and more difficult, including electronic equipment, hydraulic system and engine and other basic components frequent problems. Welsbach also expressed concern that the E-3’s detection capabilities would not be suitable for future battlefields. “The airborne sensors we rely on after the E-3 launch are not really suited for 21st century operations, especially when it comes to long-range detection of stealth aircraft like the J-20,” he said
In fact, the U.S. Air Force has been calling for a successor to the E-3 as soon as possible, and has been working on a new generation of E-10 airborne early warning and control since 2001, the latter is intended to replace the E-3, E-8C and RC-135, three large aerial surveillance platforms with distinct uses. But such an ambitious plan outstripped America’s technological capabilities at the time, and the E-10 project was eventually scrapped because it was too difficult and expensive to develop. Since then, the US Air Force has also proposed other plans to upgrade AWACS, but all of them have made no progress because of various reasons, the only option is Boeing’s E-7, which is already in service in other countries, including Australia and the UK. This aircraft technology is relatively mature, can quickly fill the E-3 after the retirement of the blank. The air force had hoped to procure 26 E-7 early warning aircraft, but HERGESETHS said recently that in addition to overspending and delays, the E-7 faces an existential crisis in future battlefields. “Based on the lessons learned from the Russia-ukraine conflict and the experience of observing China’s military modernisation, if the E-7 can not survive modern warfare, we must now make difficult decisions.”
Australian-equipped E-7 early warning aircraft
Early warning aircraft detection capacity is insufficient
The Air Force is considering acquiring the navy’s E-2D carrier-based early warning aircraft and developing a reconnaissance satellite constellation as a temporary response to the cancellation of the E-7 program, the report said. But both temporary schemes face their own problems.
Early Warning aircraft as a modern war in the“Air Command Post”, known as air combat capability“Multiplier. According to reports, the U. S. Air Force’s early warning aircraft need to respond to large-scale operational needs, emphasizing long-term air patrol capabilities, while equipped with more crew. The E-3, for example, is a modified version of a Boeing 707 airliner that can fly for about 10 hours straight, with a relatively spacious cabin that can accommodate up to 17 crew members in addition to a lot of electronics, to accommodate the command needs of large-scale air operations. According to reports, the E-3 even has a folding bed inside, for long-term air missions for the crew to rest. The machine-scanning radar is capable of detecting air, ground and water targets, and is capable of resisting ground clutter interference. When flying at an altitude of 9,000 meters, it can detect typical air targets from a distance of more than 400 kilometers.
The E-7, by contrast, is a modified version of the new Boeing 737737-700, with an in-flight refueling capability that in theory allows for longer air patrols. Unlike the E-3, which has a disc-shaped radome on its back, the E-7 uses a“Balance beam” t-shaped antenna and is equipped with an advanced active phased array radar, it has a range of over 600 kilometres and can command 24 fighter aircraft at a time. But because of the t-shaped antenna design, the E-7’s ability to detect the forward and backward directions is much less than the left and right directions.
Moreover, the E-7 is, after all, developed for other countries and does not fully meet the requirements of the U. S. Air Force. The U.S. Air Force, for example, is demanding that the E-7’s“Multipurpose electronically scanned array” radar, developed by Northrop Grumman, be replaced with more advanced radar models to enhance anti-stealth capabilities. These changes are now one of the main reasons for E-7 delivery delays.
After the E-7 was eliminated, the U. S. Air Force considered purchasing the navy’s E-2D“Hawkeye” carrier-based early warning aircraft“Emergency. But there are many questions about this approach. The E-2D is a far cry from the E-3 and E-7, which take off from land-based airports, in terms of detection capability, flight duration and command capability, according to the US website sudden defense. Because the E-2D needs to be considered for takeoff from an aircraft carrier, its fuselage size is strictly limited and it can not carry large antennas. The E-2D, powered by propellers, is not as high or as fast as the jet-powered U. S. Air Force early warning aircraft, according to the war zone channel, as a direct result, the coverage of E-2D air patrols is smaller. The E-2D’s“Short legs” are a particular problem, given that the U. S. Air Force’s early-warning aircraft, deployed in the Pacific, have to cross vast stretches of ocean. It also has limited internal space to carry only five crew members, far fewer than the larger AWACS, and even with more advanced automation, it lacks the capability to conduct large-scale air operations. In addition, the E-2D’s endurance is weak, and even when refueled, given the crew’s endurance, the duration of each mission is usually difficult to exceed eight hours.
However, some supporters believe that the U. S. Navy and Air Force use the same model of early warning aircraft, help reduce the use of E-2D and maintenance costs. At the same time, the aircraft for the low requirements of land airports, suitable for decentralized deployment, in line with the current U. S. military values of the distributed combat concept.
Space reconnaissance is problematic
In addition to purchasing the Navy’s E-2D carrier-based early warning aircraft, Hergeses made it clear that the aircraft faced an“Existential crisis” on modern battlefields and should therefore be given greater consideration to“Tracking air targets from space”. US Air Force officials have repeatedly warned that the viability of AWACS has been compromised by the development of modern long-range air defence systems, as demonstrated by the shooting down of Russian aircraft in the Ukraine-russia conflict. In addition, both China and Russia are developing a new generation of long-range air-to-air missile that can travel hundreds of kilometres and pose a serious threat to the early warning systems in the rear.
Defense News says the Pentagon is looking at using satellites instead of early-warning aircraft to provide air-target guidance. The technology is the use of radar or other technology to identify and track targets and distinguish them from friendly forces or civilian assets. A large number of future intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR-RRB- missions will be carried out by space reconnaissance systeHERGESETHSeths said. The report said the Pentagon has recently repeatedly claimed that space satellite assets can better track air targets. Admiral Gregory Gilot, commander of the Northern Command Air Force, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on May 13 that the Pentagon had begun testing a satellite-based target-tracking sensor. During an interview on June 26, U.S. Space Force Commander Chance Salzman revealed that the“Air Mobile target designation” had been added to the Space Force’s mission list for the past three years, but he also admitted that, while space satellites may be part of the solution for tracking aerial targets, they may not be the only means.
In an interview with defense news, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendal said moving target indication by satellite still faces multiple technical challenges, these include power issues, the ability to penetrate clouds, and the ability to withstand enemy attacks. According to reports, US military officials who support satellite reconnaissance believe that satellites in space are not only relatively safer, but also that modern stealth fighters can not avoid detection from above. But there are also many technical difficulties in detecting airborne targets from space, such as the fact that satellites themselves are rapidly orbiting the Earth. A considerable number of satellite constellations need to be maintained in order to maintain a continuous surveillance capability over a long period of time. In addition, space satellites are only means of detection, and relevant target information still needs to be transmitted to ground or air command centres in order to coordinate operations, because air targets are moving very fast, this also requires the world data link transmission is very stable and fast. Kendal said a fully space-based mobile targeting system would take a long time to build and might not be operational by the time the E-3 fleet had to be decommissioned.