E-7A Wedgetail
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E-7A WEDGETAIL Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft
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Australia received the first E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft in 2009, and it began operations in 2010. A total of 6 aircraft have been delivered to Australia. The E-7A Wedgetail represents an entirely new capability for the ADF (Royal Australian Air Force), providing a platform that gathers information from a wide variety of sources, analyzes it, and distributes it to all friendly air and surface assets. AEW&C aircraft can control the tactical battle space, providing direction for fighter aircraft, surface combatants and land-based elements, as well as supporting aircraft such as tankers and intelligence platforms. The E-7A Wedgetail is therefore a major new capability for the Australian Defense Force, which will significantly multiply the effectiveness of our existing Navy, Army, Air Force and Coastwatch, and help Australia maintain a capability edge well into the future. The E-7A Wedgetail is truly the “Eyes of the Nation”. |
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- No variants.
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Based on the 737-700 commercial airliner airframe, the E-7A features advanced multirole electronically scanned radar and 10 state-of-the-art mission crew consoles that can track airborne and maritime targets simultaneously.
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The E-7A Wedgetail is equipped with ventral fins to counterbalance the radar and countermeasures mounted on the nose, wingtips and tail. In-flight refueling is via a receptacle on top of the forward fuselage. The cabin features eight operator consoles with sufficient space for four more; the Australian fleet will operate ten consoles with space for two more (four on port side and six on the starboard side).
- Multi-role electronically scanned array (MESA) radar with range in excess of 400km - Electronic warfare self-protection measures including directed infra-red counter-measures, chaff and flares - Communication systems including HF, VHF, UHF, Link-11, Link-16, UHF SATCOM and ICS |
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The E-7A Wedgetail is powered by two CFM International CFM56-7B24 engines, each rated at 118kN. The aircraft has a flying boom receptacle and a fixed probe providing dual in-flight refueling capability. The CFM56-7B24 engine also features dual annular combustors for low emissions, a common core, and a low-pressure turbine. The E-7 Wedgetail operates at an altitude of 30,000ft to 40,000ft with a maximum operating altitude of 41,000ft. The aircraft's maximum dash and normal cruise speeds are 955km/h and 759km/h, respectively. The range is 7,040 km, and the service ceiling is 12,500m.
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AEW&C aircraft elevate the radar 10,000 meters above the earth’s surface so that the radar can ‘see’ everything out to a range of hundreds of kilometers. Low-flying aircraft can no longer ‘sneak up’ by approaching below the radar horizon. An E-7A Wedgetail cruising at an altitude of 10,000 meters can maintain surveillance over a surface area of 400,000 square kilometers at any given time. Over a 10-hour mission, the Wedgetail could cover over 4 million square kilometers. The radar can perform simultaneous air and sea search, fighter control, and area search, with a maximum range of over 600 km (look-up mode). When operating in look-down mode against a fighter-sized target, the maximum range is in excess of 370 km. Against maritime targets, the maximum range is over 240 km for frigate-sized targets. MESA can simultaneously track 180 targets and conduct 24 intercepts. In addition, the radar antenna array is also doubled as an ELINT array, with a maximum range of over 850 km at 9,000 meters altitude
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