WASHINGTON — Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink told the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee on April 30 that the Air Force has contracts in place for five additional Boeing E-7A Wedgetail airborne battle management aircraft — bringing the total number of contracted planes to seven and marking a significant step forward for a program that has spent the past year fighting for survival.
The five additional aircraft are engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) variants, Meink confirmed in testimony before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and are in addition to the two rapid prototype E-7As already under contract. Meink also said the Department of the Air Force wants to work with Congress to find ways to continue funding the E-7 in future years, even though the FY2027 budget request includes no new money for the program.
What the E-7A Wedgetail Is
The E-7A Wedgetail is a next-generation airborne early warning and battle management aircraft built by Boeing on a 737-700 commercial airframe. Its defining feature is a Northrop Grumman-built Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar mounted on top of the fuselage — a long-distance sensor that allows operators to fix its view on multiple targets simultaneously and refresh its picture far more rapidly than the rotating radar dome on the legacy E-3 Sentry, according to the Air Force’s 2024 contract announcement.
The Air Force selected the E-7 in April 2022 to replace the aging E-3 Sentry, commonly known as AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), according to an official Air Force announcement. The E-3 — based on a 1950s-era Boeing 707 airframe — has been retiring from service due to parts shortages, maintenance difficulties, and increasingly obsolete Cold War-era sensor technology. The E-7 is already flown by the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Air Force, the Republic of Korea Air Force, and the Turkish Air Force.
In February 2023, the Air Force awarded Boeing an initial contract not to exceed $1.2 billion to begin prototype development. That contract was later definitized in August 2024 as a $2.56 billion deal for two operationally representative prototype aircraft, with delivery planned for fiscal 2028. At that time the Air Force said it planned to eventually field a fleet of 26 E-7As.
A Program That Nearly Died
The E-7’s path to seven contracted aircraft has been turbulent. In June 2025, the Pentagon proposed canceling the program in its FY2026 budget request, citing cost growth, schedule delays, and a belief that the E-7’s targeting mission could be transferred to Navy E-2D Hawkeye aircraft and new targeting satellites. The Government Accountability Office had estimated the price of developing the two prototype E-7s had grown from $2.56 billion to approximately $3.6 billion — a 33 percent increase — and that the aircraft’s first flight had slipped by nine months to May 2027.
Congress pushed back forcefully. The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act explicitly barred the Air Force from canceling the program or shutting down E-7 production lines, and the 2026 Consolidated Appropriations Act injected $1.1 billion into the program — directing the Air Force to continue development and transition to an engineering and manufacturing development phase. NATO also scrapped its own plans to buy six E-7As following the U.S. cancellation proposal.
The Updated Acquisition Strategy
In March 2026, the Air Force awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of EMD E-7s and continue development of the aircraft’s MESA radar. The Air Force confirmed in a statement to Air & Space Forces Magazine that it had approved an updated acquisition strategy for the E-7 as called for by the 2026 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
“This strategy executes Congressional direction to continue development and transition to an engineering and manufacturing development phase,” the Air Force said in the statement. “The aircraft acquired for the EMD phase will allow the Air Force to mature the system design, conduct risk reduction, and perform comprehensive test and verification activities in accordance with Congressional intent.”
Meink’s April 30 testimony confirmed that those contracts cover five EMD aircraft, filling in the previously undisclosed number. Work on the contracts is expected to be completed by August 2032 at facilities in Seattle, Oklahoma City, Huntsville, Alabama, and Heath, Ohio.
The Program’s Uncertain Future Beyond Seven
Despite the seven aircraft now under contract, the long-term future of the E-7 program beyond that number remains unresolved. The Air Force’s FY2027 budget request includes no new E-7 funding — though it does include a nominal amount starting in fiscal 2029 in its five-year projection. Meink said at the April 30 hearing that the department wants to work with Congress to find a path to continued funding.
Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX), vice chairman of the subcommittee and a former Navy fighter pilot, said he is concerned the budget includes no E-7 funding and questioned whether the E-2D Hawkeye can adequately fill the role. “The E-2 really doesn’t cut it,” Ellzey said at the hearing. “It’s like comparing a King Air to a 777, with respect to capabilities.”.
The Air Force has also signaled that the E-7 is intended as an interim solution. In the long term, the department expects space-based platforms to increasingly take over the moving target indication and battle management missions the E-7 would perform — a transition officials have said they envision beginning in the 2030s.
Allied Operators and Interoperability
The U.S. Air Force has been preparing for the E-7 since 2022 by embedding Airmen in Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail units through a Military Personnel Exchange Program, according to a Pacific Air Forces press release. In April 2025, the U.S., Australian, and British air forces completed a historic trilateral certification allowing E-7As to refuel from U.S. KC-46A tankers, according to an official Air Force announcement. Australia has since deployed one of its Wedgetails to support airspace security during the ongoing conflict with Iran.