Wed, May 12, 2010
Early Warning And Control Aircraft Ready For Operational
Training And Use
The Commonwealth of Australia has accepted the first two Project
Wedgetail 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C)
aircraft into the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fleet. The
aircraft were accepted during a ceremony last week at RAAF Base
Williamtown, the main operating base for the Wedgetail fleet.
"This major milestone demonstrates that the 737 AEW&C system
is ready for operational training and use. It also represents the
culmination of years of design, development, modification and
testing by the Boeing-led team to bring this complex system -- the
first of its type -- to our first AEW&C customer," said Maureen
Dougherty, Boeing vice president, AEW&C Program.
Acceptance of the two Wedgetail aircraft means ground and flight
operations and maintenance of the aircraft are now fully under RAAF
control. Boeing delivered the two aircraft last year and has been
supporting RAAF familiarization training on the AEW&C system,
which includes the aircraft as well as the Operational Flight
Trainer, Operational Mission Simulator and Mission Support
System.
Boeing will deliver three more Wedgetail aircraft to the RAAF by
the end of this year, including one upgraded in the final AEW&C
configuration with Electronic Support Measures. All aircraft in the
Wedgetail fleet will be upgraded to the final configuration in
early 2011.
Project Wedgetail includes six 737 AEW&C aircraft, plus
ground support segments for mission crew training, mission support
and system maintenance. Based on the Boeing Next-Generation 737-700
commercial airplane, the 737 AEW&C aircraft is designed to
provide airborne battle-management capability with an advanced
multirole electronically scanned radar and 10 state-of-the-art
mission crew consoles that are able to track airborne and maritime
targets simultaneously. The mission crew can direct offensive and
defensive forces while maintaining continuous surveillance of the
operational area.
Boeing also has AEW&C systems in production for Turkey and
the Republic of Korea.
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