E-7 funding cut

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2027 budget request again includes no money for the Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail, leaving the radar-jet replacement for the E-3 in limbo. (airandspaceforces.com) The omission follows the Air Force’s failed attempt to kill the program in its fiscal 2026 plan. Congress overrode that move and directed the service to keep building prototypes, and the Air Force awarded Boeing two contract actions worth about $2.4 billion on March 12, 2026 to continue development work. (aviationweek.com) (breakingdefense.com) Air Force Secretary Troy Meink signaled the clash in February, saying the service would follow Congress’s direction to build prototypes and deliver a plan, but not necessarily fund the aircraft in the budget. An Air Force spokesperson told Aviation Week on April 21 that the department is still “evaluating options” to resource the program in fiscal 2027 and continue engineering and manufacturing development. (airandspaceforces.com) (aviationweek.com) The fight is over the Air Force’s airborne battle-management fleet — aircraft that act like flying control towers, tracking threats and directing fighters over long distances. The E-7 was picked to replace the E-3 Sentry, a Boeing 707-based fleet that had only 16 aircraft left at the start of this fiscal year and averaged 45 years old. (airandspaceforces.com) Those E-3s are getting harder to keep in the air. In 2024, their mission-capable rate was 56 percent, meaning fewer than nine were available on an average day. (airandspaceforces.com 1) (airandspaceforces.com 2) Congress put money behind the replacement anyway. The fiscal 2026 defense appropriations bill added $900 million for the E-7 Wedgetail, and Aviation Week reported lawmakers had already added about $1.1 billion for prototype activities after the administration sought to zero out the program. (appropriations.senate.gov) (aviationweek.com) Supporters of the aircraft say the gap matters because the Air Force’s space-based alternatives are not ready to take over the mission. Aviation Week reported Capitol Hill advocates argue the service still needs the E-7 while space-based moving-target tracking matures. (aviationweek.com) Critics inside the service have argued the opposite for months: the Wedgetail is expensive, delayed, and vulnerable in a high-end war. Even after the March contract awards, Breaking Defense reported the Air Force still did not commit to a production decision, and the program once envisioned at as many as 26 aircraft remains unresolved. (breakingdefense.com) Retired Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, the former head of Air Force Futures, said on April 22 that the service may have missed the window to buy enough E-7s before shifting to more distributed sensors. He added that the Air Force may end up relying more on Australian and British Wedgetails to help manage future air fights. (airandspaceforces.com) For now, the budget says no, the contracts say not yet, and Congress has already shown it may force the issue again. The next test is whether lawmakers add E-7 money back into fiscal 2027 the way they did a year ago. (airandspaceforces.com) (aviationweek.com)