U.S. Air Force plans flight trainers for new E-7 Wedgetail

The U.S. Air Force is seeking industry information on building a full training package for its incoming E-7 Wedgetail aircraft, including a flight simulator, two maintenance trainers and a support center, according to a Request for Information published August 19.

The RFI, issued by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Simulators Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, covers an Operational Flight Trainer, two Virtual Maintenance Trainers, and a Training System Support Center. All three device types would be based at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, with the flight trainer and support center housed in the base’s Consolidated Simulator Building. The Air Force said this is market research only and does not commit the government to a future contract.

The E-7 Wedgetail, based on a Boeing 737 commercial airframe, is intended to replace the Air Force’s E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control fleet. The program has been targeting an initial operational capability in fiscal year 2032. The Air Force said device development is expected to begin in 2027 or 2028, with delivery no later than fiscal year 2032.

The program has had an unstable recent history. The Air Force formally committed to buying E-7s in 2022 and began work on two production representative prototypes, with an earlier goal of fielding production aircraft by 2027. Delays and cost growth followed. Earlier this year, the Pentagon moved to cancel the E-7 program entirely, citing those delays and cost overruns along with concerns about the survivability of a Boeing 737 based aircraft in a high end conflict, such as one against China in the Pacific, according to The War Zone. The Pentagon’s alternative plan called for buying additional Navy E-2D Hawkeyes to fill the gap left by retiring E-3s.

Members of Congress pushed back. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, said at a June Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that E-3 coverage in Alaska was already strained and that the Air Force was “kind of limping along” while waiting on the E-7.

“I have been concerned. We have E-3 capability up north, of course, but we were all counting on the E-7 Wedgetail coming our way. We’re kind of limping along up north right now, which is unfortunate. And the budget proposes terminating the program,” Murkowski said.

The draft fiscal year 2026 defense policy bill released in December included provisions barring funds from being used to terminate the E-7 production line, and separately restricting the Air Force from retiring any of its remaining 16 E-3 Sentry aircraft below that number, unless the service submits a readiness plan to Congress or fields enough E-7s to cover the mission. The same legislation authorized $647 million in additional E-7 development and procurement funding, on top of nearly $200 million Congress had already included in an earlier bill that ended a government shutdown. By June, according to The War Zone, the Pentagon had reversed course entirely and abandoned its cancellation plans, though funding levels for the coming fiscal year remained under discussion between the White House and Congress.