Royal Australian Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft fleet has achieved Final Operational ...
The fleet of six Wedgetail aircraft reached the milestone this month with the entire capability, from physical aircraft to logistics, management, sustainment, facilities and training, now fully operational and able to support ongoing operations.
The E-7A Wedgetail is based on a Boeing 737-700 business jet platform, with the addition of an advanced Northrop Grumman Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar and 10 mission crew consoles. The MESA antenna is fixed, instead of a rotating one, and is capable of simultaneously tracking 180 targets and conducting 24 intercepts.
The aircraft deployed was deployed to fight the ISIL, completing over 100 surveillance sorties with coalition partners, flying more than 1,200 hours.
The Wedgetail also provided coordination and flight safety capability for the air search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean.
Final Operational Capability is declared when the entire capability can be deployed on operations. FOC considers the personnel, training, major systems, supplies, facilities and training areas, logistics, support, command and management required to deliver the full capability required.
The E-7A Wedgetail can control the tactical battle space, providing direction for fighter aircraft, surface combatants and land based elements, as well as supporting aircraft such as tankers and intelligence platforms. They can cover four million square kilometres during a single 10 hour mission.
In January 2015, the Australian E-7A performed the longest Australian command and control mission in a war zone during a 16-hour, 18-minute combat mission over Iraq; the aircraft required two air-to-air refueling to stay aloft.
