E-7 Wedgetail Radar Jet Procurement Plans Axed By NATO
The Dutch Ministry of Defense has announced that NATO nations have dropped their plan to buy Boeing E-7A Wedgetail as the alliance’s next airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) platform. The decision comes after South Korea rejected the E-7 for its own AEW&C program and would appear to open the NATO door to Saab’s rival GlobalEye, which France has already said it intends to buy.
In a statement today, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said that the Netherlands, “together with a number of partner countries,” has decided not to purchase the six E-7s. These aircraft were expected to partially replace the 16 Boeing E-3A Sentry Airborne Warning And Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft that are operated by the NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force (NAEW&CF), home-stationed at Geilenkirchen Air Base in Germany.
The Dutch Ministry of Defense said that the E-7 program has lost its “strategic and financial basis,” and confirmed the United States had withdrawn from the program in July, resulting in “significant changes” to the alliance’s AWACS replacement program.
The statement added that the members are now exploring alternatives for replacing the AWACS fleet.
“The goal remains to have other, quieter aircraft operational by 2035,” said State Secretary for Defense of the Netherlands, Gijs Tuinman. The minister was referencing the fact that the E-3s will reach the end of their service life in 2035 and have been criticized for their excessive noise signature.
Originally, the Netherlands was one of seven partner members in the AWACS replacement program, alongside Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, and the United States. Apart from the United States, which stepped away in July, it’s unclear from the Dutch statement whether any of the other partners decided to depart the program. However, the statement says that the “remaining countries” are now “looking for new partners.”
Regardless, at this stage, it seems highly unlikely that Boeing and the E-7 will find a way back into NATO’s plans.
That would appear to leave European rival Saab and its GlobalEye AEW&C platform, which is based on a Bombardier Global 6000/6500 long-range bizjet airframe.
In his statement, Dutch defense minister Tuinman also appeared to suggest that a European solution would be preferred, with Saab being the only realistic candidate.
“The withdrawal of the United States also demonstrates the importance of investing as much as possible in European industry,” Tuinman said.
A Saab spokesperson provided TWZ with the following statement today:
“We are aware of media reports related to NATO’s AWACS program. There is a significant increase in global interest for GlobalEye, and we believe GlobalEye makes an excellent solution for many countries that need long-range detection and identification capabilities of objects in the air, at sea, and over land. We are open to discuss and explore how our technology can support the needs of our potential customers.”
In its favor is the fact that the GlobalEye has already been earmarked by France to replace its E-3F Sentry fleet.
At the Paris Air Show this summer, Saab and the French defense procurement agency, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), signed a joint declaration of intent regarding the sale of two GlobalEye aircraft to France, plus two options.
“Our solution will enable France to maintain full sovereign control of its airborne early warning and control capability,” Micael Johansson, President and CEO of Saab, said at the time.
Sweden, now also a NATO member, has placed orders (two firm and two options) for the GlobalEye, too, while Saab also pitched the aircraft to Denmark and Finland, with a view to them potentially jointly operating the type.
NATO had not yet placed a firm order for the six E-7s, but back in 2023 had announced its plan to “take steps toward acquiring” those aircraft, via U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) channels. This was the first part of an effort known as Initial Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (iAFSC).
The original NATO decision in favor of the E-7 had been made after a “rigorous assessment process,” including an assessment of requests for information (RFI) and price and availability (P&A), and studies of previous E-7 acquisition programs, namely in Australia, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The United Kingdom is already well underway with its E-7 procurement, but this program has been dogged by delays and cost overruns and has been trimmed to just three aircraft.
At the time, NATO had determined that the E-7 was “the only known system currently capable of fulfilling the strategic commands’ essential operational requirements and key performance parameters and available for delivery within the timeframe required.” This decision has now been turned on its head, apparently spurred by the U.S. decision to withdraw from the NATO program.
There remains the possibility that NATO might forego buying a crewed AEW&C platform altogether.
When the E-7 acquisition plan was first announced, NATO said it was “an initial element to mitigate the risk of airborne surveillance and control capability gap,” but the Wedgetail would be just “one contributing element […] to the overall Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) system of systems capability.”
This indicated that the alliance ultimately planned to field the E-7 within an integrated network of sensors, also including drones, and other aircraft types that can operate in a surveillance-gathering capacity, and space-based systems.
In a graphic that NATO provided alongside the original E-7 announcement, the Wedgetail was shown as one part of a multifaceted surveillance enterprise that also included uncrewed airborne surveillance (illustrated with a NATO RQ-4D Phoenix high-altitude long-endurance drone), space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), maritime-based ISR, land-based radar, and MILSATCOM. Also featured were a digital backbone and combat cloud, while a final segment is left empty, suggesting the potential for other platforms or capabilities to be added at a later date.
Overall, NATO’s future AEW&C vision had some similarities with the U.S. Air Force’s plans in this domain.
Increasingly, the U.S. Air Force has viewed the E-7 as a solution to bridge the gap between the retirement of its own aging E-3s and a future space-based radar capability and other classified systems.
In general, the U.S. military has increasingly been looking at the possibilities for future distributed space-based networks that would ultimately exist as large, meshed constellations that could persistently surveil the skies of nearly the entire globe, opening up a whole new set of tactics and situational awareness capabilities. At the same time, these would be more resilient and less vulnerable than traditional surveillance assets. The Pentagon is also looking at ways to rapidly replace any satellites that are destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable, reflecting the fact that even space-based assets are far from invulnerable to hostile actors.
It is far from clear what kind of progress NATO might have made in the development of radar-equipped satellites that could provide capabilities similar to crewed AEW&C aircraft. Also questionable is whether European NATO allies would be able to afford such a system, although buying into the U.S. constellation could be an option. Outside of the classified realm, meanwhile, many countries, as well as private companies, now publicly operate various space-based radars, albeit primarily for imaging purposes.
The future of the E-7 with the U.S. Air Force has also been far from certain.
In its fiscal 2026 budget request, the Pentagon called for the Wedgetail procurement to be scrapped in favor of an ambitious effort to use space-based assets to perform moving target indication missions. The Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye, as used aboard U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, then emerged as a possible substitute for the U.S. Air Force’s E-7, at least in the interim.
The program remained in limbo until this week, when the federal government shutdown lifted and appropriators approved spending for the U.S. Air Force’s E-7 program. The next tranche of funds, just under $200 million, will ensure that research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) for the E-7 continues, alongside rapid prototyping activities. Remaining procurement funding from fiscal 2025 is directed to be allocated to the RDT&E effort.
There are, meanwhile, increasing concerns about the survivability of crewed surveillance aircraft like the E-7. While these kinds of platforms may be more relevant in the European scenario, there remain questions as to whether aircraft like these can get close enough in wartime to be effective at all.
Potentially, NATO could forego buying an interim crewed AEW&C platform altogether, although previous statements from officials make this sound less likely.
Referring to the choice of the E-7 for the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said in 2023: “Surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft are crucial for NATO’s collective defense, and I welcome allies’ commitment to investing in high-end capabilities. By pooling resources, allies can buy and operate major assets collectively that would be too expensive for individual countries to purchase. This investment in state-of-the-art technology shows the strength of transatlantic defense cooperation as we continue to adapt to a more unstable world.”
Once again, should NATO decide to move forward with an alternative crewed AEW&C aircraft, the GlobalEye would appear to be the only realistic option given the timeframe.
It is notable, meanwhile, that interest in these kinds of aircraft is currently growing in the European region, a direct result of the growing threat from Russia, combined with other operational contingencies that demand broad-area surveillance and airspace control.
With this in mind, Poland recently acquired two Saab 340 twin-turboprop aircraft equipped with the same company’s Erieye AEW&C system. Similar aircraft have also been promised to Ukraine.
The sudden emergence of Russian drones as a threat within NATO airspace has further underscored the value of AEW&C assets, which have a critical look-down capability against uncrewed air vehicles as well as cruise missiles. Aircraft like these can keep watch over the alliance’s eastern flank to monitor Russian military aircraft and missiles, as well as potentially hostile movements on the ground and at sea.
Time will tell what path NATO follows as it sets about replacing its veteran E-3s, which are now getting so old that their availability will likely continue to degrade toward 2035. In another blow for Boeing, the E-7 would seem to be out of the picture as a NATO AWACS successor. If the alliance does opt for a crewed AWACS solution, the GlobalEye could end up playing a much bigger role across NATO.
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