AEW&C – critical advantage from above

Superior airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) confers advantage over an adversary and potential dominance over a battlespace. Latest AEW&C aircraft developments and operations underpin the continuing and increasing importance for their presence in the skies above today’s geopolitically, supercharged, global landscape.

Following the advent of radar in the UK in the mid-1930s, it was not long before this new ground-based technology was adapted for use in an airborne capacity aboard aircraft, first in the UK on a couple of Wellington bombers to create the first effective airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) assets. The British RAF used them during WW2 directing Allied fighters to intercept Luftwaffe bombers crossing the English Channel. Later, in the US in 1945, adapted Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers carrying AN/APS-20 radar became the first production AEW&C aircraft – operated by the US Navy. The much larger B-17 bomber followed soon thereafter to support other arms. And that was just the beginning.

Fast forward to today and the value and importance of AEW&C during wartime is once again playing out in European skies, but this time covering the battlespace of Ukraine, as well as neighbouring countries, both Allied and adversarial. NATO’s Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft have taken the lead role in this regard, working alongside other Allied AEW&C assets, and despite the road map for an eventual AWACS replacement already in play.

This article takes a look at some Allied AEW&C aircraft activities in the context of the war in Ukraine, as well as certain future NATO AEW&C aircraft developments.

Support around Ukraine

In the weeks and months prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces had been manoeuvring and forming up in concentration areas across the border in what were clear indications of events to come. Despite Kremlin ‘reassurances’ at the time that they were not intending to invade, Ukraine wisely prepared for the worst, with its military and intelligence services together with those of Allied nations sharing vital information on the Russian build-up well before the invasion began.

Indeed, some of that pre-invasion information came directly from NATO’s E-3A AWACS force based at Geilenkirchen in Germany, which had implemented intensive preparedness activities in 2021 to ensure planes and crews were operationally ready at all times, 24/7/365, with many sorties flown. They could see what was looming on the horizon. Since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, AWACS planes had already been flying what the Alliance calls ‘Assurance Measures’ missions to reassure eastern European Allies by gathering accurate intel on any related and relevant developments detected. However, once the Russians began making their move in late February 2022, sorties increased, not only in number, but also in duration, to ensure NATO HQ had as much real-time intelligence on the situation unfolding on the Alliance’s eastern flank as possible – in the air, at sea and on the ground. One major difference, though, now hostilities between Russia and Ukraine have been ongoing for more than two years, is that any intel gathered by NATO’s ‘eyes in the sky’ is no longer shared directly with the Ukrainians, though it is shared with other regionally-relevant Allies and Alliance members, from whom, it is accepted, it reaches Ukrainian Forces, and in most cases, in time for them to make effective use of it.

Since the invasion, NATO has conducted several AEW&C training operations specifically involving regions most threatened by potential wider Russian aggression. Exercise Ramstein Legacy 22, for example, brought together both NATO E-3A AWACS and the Turkish E-7T aircraft and crews to deploy their integrated air and missile defence capabilities over Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the wider Baltic Sea Region, as well as Poland. The Turkish aircraft demonstrated tactical, operational, and technical interoperability with its E-3 Sentry AWACS peers while providing command and control (C2) over Baltic airspace. In addition, several multi-domain scenarios, such as air-to-air weapon control and missile defence capabilities, were tested. The overall presence of Turkish E-7T at Geilenkirchen also demonstrated how these two AEW&C platforms, together with their multi-national crews, were able to work seamlessly together. Türkiye’s E-7T also conducted NATO assurance measures missions in Baltic airspace during the exercise, with the resulting radar intelligence shared among NATO assets and contributing to the Alliance’s overall air, land and maritime picture across the region.

This mid-2022 interaction between the two platforms in this instance was meaningful in more ways than one, the next-generation, 737-airframe-based E-7 being the aircraft chosen to eventually replace, by 2035, the 707-airframe-based E-3 AWACS planes currently providing NATO’s AEW&C capability.

Meanwhile, the E-3 Sentry AWACS fleet remains NATO’s active mainstay asset in the context of the Ukrainian conflict with aircraft flying related missions of various descriptions throughout the conflict so far; a number of planes were, for instance, deployed to the Romanian air base at Otopeni during January 2023 for a two-week operational stint, to bolster the Alliance’s regional presence by flying missions in Allied air space to monitor and gather intel on Russian forces, both in Ukraine and across the Ukrainian–Russian border.

It is worth noting that from an operating altitude of around 9,000 m (approximately 30,000 ft), one E-3 AWACS plane has a field of view of over 312,000 km², while three aircraft operating in coordinated, overlapping flightpaths are able to provide complete coverage across Central Europe. Each plane can detect low-flying targets within 400 km and medium-altitude targets within 520 km, capabilities which have proven themselves monitoring the wide range of aerial targets experienced in the skies over the current conflict battlespace.

A further Ukraine-related AWACS deployment, this time with a specific mission, took place at the end of May/early June 2023, again from Allied airspace, to monitor the skies above long-standing NATO partner, Moldova, and provide a layer of security during the mid-year European political community summit that took place at Mimi Castle in Bulboaca, some 35 km from the capital, Chișinău. While the conflict in Ukraine gave obvious reason for the deployment, NATO routinely monitors the skies above major international political, sporting and other events using its AWACS aircraft. Indeed, the following month, NATO’s own summit, which took place in July 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania, was guarded against potential Russian aircraft, missile and drone threats by its own AWACS planes, again flying over Allied airspace to protect the event. Two months later, from the end of September through much of October 2023, Lithuania again played host to NATO AWACS assets, this time with two aircraft temporarily deployed to Šiauliai, from where they flew missions over several weeks to monitor Russian military activity near the Alliance’s borders. Some 150 personnel from Geilenkirchen deployed to Šiauliai for the duration to support the operations. In the late-2023 timeframe, following damage to a Baltic connector pipeline and several telecoms cables, AWACS sorties were stepped up over the Baltic, complementing maritime patrol aircraft and drone surveillance flights over the region.

Included in this year’s AWACS flight plans, so far, have been two E-3A aircraft operating from the airbase in Rygge, Norway over three weeks in Q1; crews comprised personnel from 15 different NATO nations as part of Exercise Nordic Response 24 (part of Steadfast Defender 24). According to NATO AEW&C Force Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander, Air Commodore Andrew Turk, the activities demonstrated the strategic role of the AWACS assets operating effectively in a multi-domain scenario to dominate the airspace and defend Alliance member state territories. All in all, a capability show, which will not have gone unnoticed by current aggressors on the European stage.

Yet, despite its continued effectiveness in such scenarios, policing major events, and flying Ukraine-related missions, to be able to do so the AWACS fleet has had to undergo a continuous modernisation programme to keep it effective now and until its scheduled operational end date in 2035. Upgrades in the 2019 timeframe, for example, included a new digital cockpit, incorporating full-colour displays with digital feedback on engine, navigation and radar operations, and having already recognised the need to replace AWACS over the coming years, most recent ongoing upgrades under the platforms’ Final Lifetime Extension Programme (FLEP), have been underway since spring 2022, the planes’ maker, Boeing, the prime FLEP contractor. These ongoing upgrades include major mission and audio and communications system modernisation efforts to keep the aircraft operationally effective through 2035, while their replacement, 737-airframe-based E-7 Wedgetails are introduced in parallel.

Replacing an icon of the skies

In mid-November 2023, NATO announced it had selected the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail as the successor to its iconic AWACS fleet, with six new aircraft to eventually replace the 14 E-3As at Geilenkirchen. Already in service with Australia, South Korea and Türkiye, NATO’s new Wedgetails should be operational by 2031, ensuring a comfortable, four-year, full-fleet overlap before the last E-3As fly their final missions.

The AEW&C E-7 Wedgetail is based on a militarised version of the Boeing 737 commercial airliner and is equipped with a powerful radar. This provides situational awareness and C2 functions, enabling the long-range detection of hostile aircraft, missiles and ships, and the subsequent directing of NATO fighter jets to their targets. In addition to the eventual six-plane NATO E-7 fleet, Alliance members US and the UK plan to operate it alongside Türkiye. Indeed, production has already begun for UK planes and it’s been reported that the USAF hopes to buy up to 26 E-7As from Boeing, with the first couple operational by 2027.

As with the current AWACS fleet, Geilenkirchen is also set to be the main base for the E-7, though with several forward locations across Europe, as is currently the case with the E-3As, and illustrated above in some of the recent deployments cited. The Wedgetail will actually form a key part of the Alliance’s future surveillance and control (AFSC) concept, which will comprise a range of NATO’s next-generation surveillance systems beyond the mid-2030s.

At the end of January, NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) said the North Atlantic Council (NAC) had agreed to the contents of a report by National Armaments Directors setting out study-phase findings – this was a four-year phase that ended in December 2023 – for the AFSC concept stage, and which has led to technical concepts being agreed on and the third and final phase of the AFSC concept stage getting underway, with NSPA continuing to lead the programme. During the study phase, industry players and specialist companies from across NATO nations teamed up and assessed a wide range of requirements, after which they proposed a selection of innovative solutions contributing to the technical concept for the AFSC, for which the E-7 Wedgetail will become an integral part.

The new platform

As for the E-7 AEW&C platform itself, the plane has the ability to scan all domains and communicate with sea surface, ground and air assets. With its growing international userbase, a greater degree of Allied interoperability and mission readiness is also expected to enhance NATO’s preparedness in the years ahead. Not only that, the fact that the E-7 is converted from the next generation 737-700 airframe means that E-7 fleets and users will be able to capitalise on existing commercial derivative aircraft design, certification and modification processes, as well as being able to call on the services, if necessary, of some 30 global repair facilities and 250 worldwide service centres, which currently cater to the global fleet on more than 9,000 commercial 737s. What this all means in the military context is that with this level of service support internationally, as well as access to the in-production, next-generation 737s’ global supply chain, E-7s flying with whichever user should experience higher operational availability rates than less widely-used airframes, and certainly higher availability than that of the current AWACS planes.

As for its mission capabilities, the aircraft offers multidomain surveillance, communications, and networked battle management, with its multi-role electronically scanned array (MESA) radar – effectively an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) surveillance radar system – made by Northrop Grumman to provide 360° coverage. This radar can remain fixed on a target, rather than experiencing the 10-second sweep-arounds that AWACS operators currently have to contend with once they detect an object of interest. The system has a sophisticated airborne moving target indicator capability, as well as beyond line-of-sight connectivity even in degraded and contested environments. Electronic support measures (ESMs) aboard the E-7 provide the ability for the platform to detect and geolocate emitters within a required frequency range, in turn leading to surveillance, target identification, and threat warning actions.

The E-7 has an IFF range of 555.6 km, a maximum ceiling of 12,500 m (41,000 ft), a maximum flying range without inflight refuelling of 6,482 km, and is flown by a crew of two, with mission control consoles sufficient for a team of ten personnel.

Acute awareness to threat spurs AEW generosity

AWACS and E-7s are, however, by no means the only AEW&C aircraft in play in today’s hostile Eastern European context. At the end of May 2024, for example, as part of its ‘military support package 16’ to Ukraine, its largest so far since the Russian invasion began, the Swedish MoD announced the provision of a new capability to strengthen Ukraine’s collective air defence, in the form of Sweden’s in-service airborne surveillance and control (ASC 890) system, which comprises two Erieye-radar-equipped Saab 340 twin-turboprop aircraft. The Swedish MoD said the two aircraft would provide Ukraine with “a completely new capability against both airborne and maritime targets”, with its ability to identify and engage targets at long range strengthened. The package offered includes training, technical equipment and methodological support for air surveillance and C2.

The Erieye radar itself is an S-band AESA radar which reportedly possesses a detection range against airborne targets of over 450 km and some 320 km against surface targets. Aboard a Saab 340 aircraft flying at high altitudes, the radar can cover an effective surveillance area measuring 500,000 km² in azimuth and over 18,300 m (60,000 ft) in elevation. Erieye is able to detect and track fighter and rotary-wing aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as sea-surface targets such as ships and maritime drones, all of which will give Ukraine a real-time, early-warning advantage it has so far not experienced.

For the Swedes, their generosity comes with a temporary decrease in its own AEW capabilities, although according to their MoD, this is being addressed by procuring additional S 106 GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft over and above the two already on order, and with the existing GlobalEye order brought forward. Comprising the same Erieye radar system, GlobalEye is, however, installed aboard a Bombardier 6000 business jet airframe instead of the Saab 340 plane. The first GlobalEye aircraft, slated for delivery to the Swedish Air Force in 2027, is currently undergoing full systems integration work at Saab’s Linköping plant in Sweden.

Similar steps are being taken by Ukraine’s allies; in mid-2023, Poland signed a USD 57 million contract with Saab for two new Saab 340 AEW&C aircraft to bolster its airborne intel capabilities. Its borders with Belarus, Russia (Kaliningrad exclave), and Ukraine, as well as its northern, 440 km long Baltic-Sea coastline, need such an asset. The first of the aircraft was delivered to the Polish Air Force during a ceremony in Saab’s Linköping plant, in late September 2023, two months after Poland placed its order. According to the company, the rapid delivery was possible due to “efficient collaboration between Saab and the Polish Armed Forces”, as well as the fact that Saab has an active production line specifically in play at all times for AEW solutions.

Closing thoughts

While Allied AEW&C aircraft industry and operational developments unfold and progress, perhaps with greater urgency than ever driven by events in Ukraine, it’s worth emphasising just how important such assets are and what high-value targets they themselves make for either side in a confrontation, by looking briefly at recent Russian AEW&C losses in the Ukraine conflict. Eliminating such an enemy platform from the battlespace will help keep an adversary as blind as possible to friendly force movements.

This is exactly what happened in mid-January 2024, when a Russian Beriev A-50 surveillance plane, together with an Ilyushin Il-22M airborne command post were destroyed by the Ukrainians near the Sea of Azov. Following various reports on Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels, as well as mainstream media, Ukraine’s general staff confirmed the Ukrainian Air Force as responsible for the downing of the two AEW&C aircraft at that time. Then, towards the end of February, another Beriev A-50 was reported by Ukraine’s Interfax news agency and Ukrainska Pravda as having been shot down near the Russian cities of Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and Yeisk by Ukraine’s air force, in collaboration with its intelligence directorate (DIU). Ukrainian Air Force commander, Mykola Oleshchuk, on Telegram and in Ukrainska Pravda, was quoted as saying, “An A-50 aircraft with the alias Bayan, (Russian for Accordion), has done its time in the sky! Greetings to the occupiers on the Russia’s Day of the Defender of the Motherland!” These initial reports were eventually confirmed by the DIU, with spokesperson, Andrii Yusov, stating that the downing of “such an important target, and on such a significant date for the enemy” was the work of the air force.

Just as the Ukrainians have Russia’s AEW&C assets on their list of “such important” high-priority targets, so, too, will any adversary in the future have NATO and Allied AEW&C aircraft in their sights. That said, and even though the latest Allied AEW&C aircraft remain unarmed, they are equipped with sophisticated infra-red decoy flare countermeasure systems, though just how effective they will be against a determined attack remains to be seen. Preferably, such assets will already have detected any threats and directed an attack against them before they have a chance to strike.

Tim Guest