The UK Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) first Boeing E-7A Wedgetail AEW Mk1 airborne early warning and control aircraft made its public debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at RAF Fairford on 19 July 2025.
The Wedgetail performed a flypast with the RAF’s Red Arrows aerobatic display team as well as performing a ‘touch and go’ on the runway before departing back to Birmingham Airport, where it is being prepared for RAF service. The aircraft had, in fact, been expected to make an appearance at RIAT the previous day, but was prevented from doing so by a technical hitch.
Based on the Boeing 737 Next Generation airliner, the E-7 detects and identifies adversarial targets at long range and tracks multiple airborne and maritime threats simultaneously with 360° coverage via its Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar, providing critical multi-domain awareness and command-and-control decision advantage.
The Wedgetail that appeared at RIAT, which made its first flight post-modification on 20 September 2004, is the first of three E-7s that will replace the RAF’s E-3D Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft fleet, which was retired in 2021.
Under a USD 1.98 billion (EUR 1.78 billion) contract announced by the UK Ministry of Defence on 22 March 2019 a total of five E-7 Wedgetails were originally ordered, but under the UK government’s 2021 Integrated Defence Review the UK E-7 order was reduced to three aircraft.
The RAF’s Wedgetails will serve under No 8 Squadron and will be located at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland alongside the nine-strong fleet of P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. The fact that both aircraft types are based upon the widely used Boeing 737 Next Generation airframe will allow the RAF to take advantage of synergies between the two fleets.
