The United States Air Force has committed to purchasing five additional Boeing E-7A Wedgetail surveillance planes, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced during congressional testimony on Thursday.
Meink informed members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that the service will acquire five engineering and manufacturing development versions of the E-7A aircraft. This purchase comes on top of two prototype models that are already under contract.
The surveillance aircraft program faced uncertainty in the previous year when Pentagon officials stepped back from an original plan to purchase 26 Boeing E-7A units. That larger acquisition was intended to modernize the military’s aging fleet of airborne early warning and control system aircraft, known as AWACS, which dates back to the Cold War era.
When the Defense Department reduced its acquisition plans, NATO also abandoned its own proposal to purchase six E-7A aircraft.
The E-7A Wedgetail is built using Boeing’s widely-used 737 commercial aircraft as its foundation. The United States had previously committed to acquiring the two prototype versions of the surveillance plane.
