By: Simon Murdoch
The UK RAF have entered into a new wartime era with their first of three Boeing E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft ordered by the Royal Air Force being painted into RAF colours at Southend airport in October and then returning back to Birmingham October 18th to have specialist aerial surveillance equipment fitted before delivery to No.8 Squadron at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.
The aircraft which is a converted Boeing 737 former business jet completed its first test flight on Sept. 20, 2024 following conversion at Birmingham International Airport.
Carrying the UK military serial number WT001, the aircraft took off from Birmingham International Airport shortly before 14.30 UTC on Sept. 20, 2024, before travelling to airspace over the Bristol Channel to complete its test flight programme.
The next two aircraft, which are undergoing their respective conversions at STS Aerospace Birmingham now, will be WT002 and WT003. WT002 is around the same age as WT001 with a similar history, but WT003 is a new build airframe, having been completed in 2022. The use of second-hand aircraft allows for a quicker journey to conversion and entry to service for these airframes, avoiding the waitlist for new-builds.
The Royal Air Force initially planned to acquire five E-7s, designated Wedgetail AEW1, to replace the E-3D Sentry AEW1, though this number was cut to three aircraft in 2021. With the final E-3Ds bowing out of service in 2021, this has left the RAF without a dedicated airborne early warning aircraft for a number of years.
Achieving the first flight of Wedgetail is a significant milestone, representing an outstanding effort from the RAF programme team, DE&S, Boeing and STS Aviation. They will now continue the Test & Evaluation phase as part of the preparations for the aircraft to enter into service. The combat-proven E-7 detects and identifies adversarial targets at long range and tracks multiple airborne and maritime threats simultaneously with 360-degree coverage via the Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) sensor. It provides the war fighter with critical multi-domain awareness and command-and-control decision advantage.
The registrations WT001 to WT003 were originally allocated to English Electric Canberra B2 production but not actually used so now being used for Wedgetails instead.
It has the special NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force shield badge and aircraft registration number WT001 on its nose.
It also has a special tail logo the No.8 Squadron badge, a sheathed Arabian dagger known as a Jambiya, was adopted in recognition of the Squadron’s long association with Arabia. The weapon is sheathed to symbolise the squadron’s guardian duties and was approved by King George VI in December 1943.
Photos taken by Simon Murdoch show the new Boeing E7 Wedgetail spy plane WT001 taking off from Southend after painting in full RAF gey colours with its NATO badge on nose and squadron logo on tail.
