After deciding on the Boeing 737-based E-7 Wedgetail in 2023 to exchange the E-3 Sentry, the group of countries main the procurement of NATO’s subsequent airborne early warning plane have now reversed course.
The Netherlands Ministry of Defence has introduced, on behalf of the broader preliminary Alliance Future Surveillance and Management (iAFSC) Help Partnership Committee nations, that alternate options will now be sought to exchange the ageing NATO fleet of E-3A Sentry airborne warning and management system (AWACS) plane by 2035. The Help Partnership Committee was initially composed of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and the US, although the US withdrew its participation in July.
NATO’s selection of the E-7 platform was closely swayed by the strategic and monetary advantages of working a standard sort alongside the U.S. Air Drive and, to a lesser diploma, the UK Royal Air Drive. With U.S. plans shifting away from the E-7 – regardless of Congress-mandated funding nonetheless flowing – these advantages have change into more and more unsure. The Royal Air Drive, at current, plans to function solely three E-7 plane.
Although the UK order was positioned prematurely of the U.S. and NATO deciding on the E-7, commonality with these main companions was anticipated to assist maintain the plane in the long run. The UK’s acquisition has been suffering from delays, value overruns, and controversy, and that is solely prone to worsen following NATO’s resolution.
The U.S. will nonetheless procure at the least a small variety of E-7s – the contract for the primary two speedy prototypes having been awarded to STS Aviation in Birmingham, UK – nevertheless any widespread adoption of the plane would seemingly come towards the need of the present Division of Protection (DoD) administration. Proposing the E-7’s cancellation in its 2026 price range proposal, the DoD as an alternative wished to put money into space-based early warning know-how with the E-2D Hawkeye as a possible lower-cost stopgap answer.
“To set the report right here, this [#E7 AEW&C cancellation] was an OSD [Office of Secretary of Defense] proposal. The Air Drive had a full up plan to accumulate the E-7 #Wedgetail..” pic.twitter.com/7KodCnhfIt
— AirPower 2.0 (MIL_STD) (@AirPowerNEW1) November 13, 2025
These in charge of the budgets, nevertheless, produce other concepts. Politicians within the U.S. Congress have repeatedly fought to have funding for the E-7 reinstated, and in latest days gained a big victory with E-7 funding included in a invoice geared toward ending the federal authorities shutdown.
From an preliminary fleet of 18 E-3 Sentry airframes, NATO at the moment operates 14 AWACS plane. Following speedy retirements of plane, the U.S. Air Drive’s stock sits at an analogous quantity. NATO intends to see its E-3s function out to 2035, with press releases referring principally to noise air pollution as a supply of points with the plane. The U.S. Air Drive, in the meantime, has repeatedly drawn consideration to the more and more troublesome upkeep necessities of the Boeing 707-based plane. We reported in a earlier article that the sort’s mission readiness price in 2024 stood at solely 55.7%, and maintainers engaged on the plane are required to carry proficiency in as many as three to 4 instances extra specialist duties in comparison with these engaged on different varieties.
It must be famous that whereas the U.S. Air Drive fleet is predicted to see long run abroad deployments throughout the globe, NATO’s fleet is ready to place its prime concentrate on European airspace. This enables the NATO E-3s to function principally from their house base or comparatively close by, with all logistical help available, and carry out fewer flight hours every year. In September, Pratt & Whitney acquired a contract to supply sustainment providers for the NATO E-3 fleet’s TF33 turbofan engines.
Places all these orbits in a special perspective.
🇪🇺🇱🇺 NATO01 is E-3A Sentry AWACS LX-N90445 #4D03C3 pic.twitter.com/gUe2HsY9Lr
— Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555) September 19, 2025
Mark Rutte’s Press Convention
Although seemingly timed alongside the announcement to not procure the E-7, a press convention with NATO Secretary Basic Mark Rutte on Nov. 13 in entrance of a NATO E-3 at their Geilenkirchen Air Base house oddly noticed no point out of the choice nor any speak of particular different plans.
As a substitute, the previous Dutch Prime Minister, who has headed NATO since 2024, paid tribute to the personnel who served on the base in addition to others within the space. He additionally bolstered the significance of the airborne early warning mission to NATO’s general defence.
A pleasure to go to NATO’s Airborne Warning and Management Drive – Thanks Maj Basic Korb for welcoming Minister-President @HendrikWuest & myself to the bottom in Geilenkirchen. Internet hosting @NATOAWACS the women and men listed here are doing an important job – as NATO’s eyes within the sky, you make… pic.twitter.com/2PbDSyyBA0
— Mark Rutte (@SecGenNATO) November 13, 2025
When requested by reporters concerning the alternative of the AWACS plane, Rutte stated that “the planes must be changed, that’s clear, in order that course of is ongoing, and I’ll do all the things to hurry up that course of.”
Erieye Different
The first different to the E-7 talked about by many is the Saab Erieye system. With Sweden now a part of NATO, Erieye exists as each a European possibility and one that also comes from throughout the alliance. Within the press launch concerning the cancellation of the E-7 plans it was particularly talked about that the “US withdrawal additionally demonstrates the significance of investing as a lot as doable in European trade.”
Erieye is a smaller system than the MESA array carried by the E-7 Wedgetail, however it nonetheless supplies an energetic electronically scanned array (AESA) and, reportedly, 360 levels of detection. Based on Jane’s, either side of the radar gives 130 levels of scanning and monitoring, whereas the remaining 30 levels fore and aft are detect-only with no monitoring. This may very well be mitigated to a point by flying round ‘orbits’ like the present E-3, although the equally configured E-7 is meant to fly racetrack patterns as an alternative with lengthy straight parallel traces to maximise the on-target period of its bigger aspect arrays.
France has chosen newest technology of the Erieye system built-in on a Bombardier International enterprise jet (in a mixed product often known as GlobalEye) to exchange its E-3 Sentry fleet, and, as the house of Saab, the system can be utilized by the Swedish Air Drive.
It’s broadly thought that the Erieye radar is unable to match the uncooked efficiency of the E-7’s MESA, nevertheless the decrease value and smaller footprint, permitting for smaller, cheaper plane and extra of them, may outweigh the efficiency hit. When battling the E-7 for the Royal Air Drive contract, Saab proposed an A330 Erieye system that might have seen the widebody airliner carry two radar arrays on its higher fuselage on the identical time.
With a deadline of 2035 on the very newest, it appears unlikely that Airbus would be capable of pull something out of the bag by itself with out a partnership with Saab for the Erieye system.
