Billions of dollars and the fate of significant programs are at stake in a long-running Pentagon argument about how to detect airborne targets and handle future air wars.
Arguments revolve around whether synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology has matured sufficiently to execute the airborne moving-target indicator (AMTI) function from space.
According to people familiar with the discussions, the Air Force’s planned investment of 26 Boeing E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft is contingent on the outcome of internal deliberations as the White House finalizes the fiscal 2026 budget request.
Pentagon agencies have been working since the late 1990s to move the AMTI function performed by an aging fleet of Air Force E-3 Sentry aircraft to orbit, and they are making headway. On May 13, Gen. Gregory Guillot, chief of the United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, announced that SAR-equipped satellites are tracking moving airborne targets during an ongoing orbital demonstration.
“A number of prototype systems” are “on orbit now” for space-based AMTI, Guillot said during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.
Guillot’s remarks came in response to a question from subcommittee Chair Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) on sensor and radar system alternatives that may be integrated into an ultimate Golden Dome missile defense architecture. Guillot did not disclose any additional information on the prototype sensors.
The physical problems of employing spacecraft to follow moving objects on the ground or in the air are daunting, necessitating massive power generation and aperture size to achieve signal-to-noise ratios comparable to AMTI-capable radars on E-3s or E-7A Wedgetail flying hundreds or thousands of miles below.
Furthermore, the military space community recognizes that the capabilities sought for space-based AMTI sensors are limited, as tracking supersonic and hypersonic objects is still regarded as a step above the current state of the art.
“The U.S. Space Force has been involved in conceptual studies and analysis to explore potential proliferated [space-based] AMTI constellations providing global coverage to detect and track subsonic air-breathing targets,” according to an Aviation Week spokesperson.
This approach opens the way to tracking subsonic air-launched cruise missiles like Russia’s nuclear-armed Kh-102.
However, this capacity falls short of the complete range of operations given by the E-7A Wedgetail. In addition to the Northrop Grumman Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar, the Wedgetail includes a combat management command and control (BMC2) suite operated by ten crewmembers. The crew’s responsibilities include processing data from MESA and other sources, developing tracks of hostile aircraft and missiles, and coordinating intercepts by friendly aircraft. Now that the program’s funding is under threat within the Pentagon, Air Force chiefs openly state that the E-7A Wedgetail is required until space-based systems can carry out the entire mission.
“We have to do more than just sense,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on May 6. “We need to sense, make sense, and act. Right now, the E-7 is the platform that can do what the E-3 does, but with higher capabilities.”
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, triggered Allvin’s response by asking about the readiness of space-based AMTI capabilities to replace the E-3A. Cole’s district in Oklahoma includes Tinker AFB, which houses most of the E-3 aircraft and will eventually house the E-7A Wedgetail.
In August, the Air Force signed a $2.56 billion contract with Boeing to convert the first two 737-700 aircraft into E-7A Wedgetail prototypes, which will be delivered in fiscal year 2028. The first flight of the Air Force variant of the E-7A Wedgetail is scheduled for the “coming months,” according to a company spokesperson.
“We look forward to supporting the U.S. Air Force on the long-term evolution of the platform capabilities and fleet mission,” a Boeing representative says.
Last winter, the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office conducted a larger evaluation of the combined air battle management portfolio, which sparked the dispute. In written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February for his nomination, Navy Secretary John Phelan stated that the study would specify standards for joint air battlement in a “high-end fight.”
According to Phelan, one option under consideration in the research was to increase funding for the land-based Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye. This turboprop-powered aircraft performs the airborne early warning and control job from Navy vessels.
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