Wedgetail at Richmond

[Mike W]

"Air-to-air refueling is a force multiplier for the AEW&C aircraft," Dougherty added, "allowing it to stay on station for significantly longer periods of time while providing critical battle-management and surveillance capabilities."

Refueling the 737 AEW&C (assuming it has similar capacity and consumption to a regular 737) must give it the ability to spend some serious time in the air. Do they have alternative crew shifts or what?

[damien b]

Originally Posted by Mike W

Refueling the 737 AEW&C (assuming it has similar capacity and consumption to a regular 737) must give it the ability to spend some serious time in the air. Do they have alternative crew shifts or what?

Going by what the RAAF does with long range P-3 and C-130 operations and the USAF with long E-3 patrols, extra crew would be carried by the 737 if air to air refueling was scheduled to take place and a long patrol was planned. Would it be double the crew - that would depend on automation, crew rest facilities and room.

[Greg McDonald]

Latest on the Wedgie:

Australia's first two Wedgetail surveillance aircraft remain on target for delivery by the end of November, but full capability of the advanced radar could still be two years away.

The aircraft was now ready to be used for training and initial operations, director of the Wedgetail project Air Vice Marshal Chris Deeble said.

"But there are some aspects of the radar that we are going to have to further develop," he told reporters in Seattle.

"There is more work that we are going to have to do which may take a up to a couple of years beyond where we are to get to that final stage."

Under the $3 billion Wedgetail program, Australia is buying six Boeing 737 aircraft equipped with the advanced MESA radar, able to watch over a vast area of sky and direct fighters to intercept intruders.

The aircraft were slated for introduction to service in 2006 but technical problems with the radar have resulted in major delays, leading to speculation within defence the project might need to be cancelled.

There now have been significant advances.

A study conducted by US radar expert Lincoln Laboratories concluded the radar architecture was fundamentally sound.

And real-life trials conducted over the Northern Territory concluded the radar worked effectively at controlling fighter interception of intruders, subject to some reservations.

The key remaining radar problems relate to its clutter performance - the ability to detect targets such as low-flying aircraft against a ground or water backdrop in certain circumstances - side lobes - extraneous radar signals which could create false images - and stability, where some combinations of operator commands cause mission computers to halt temporarily or even lock up.

Two aircraft, with limited capability, will be delivered to the RAAF on November 30, with four others - in full configuration - delivered between March and September 2010.

The first two aircraft will then be upgraded to full specification.

Boeing says it is proud to have its name on the Wedgetail, describing it as a highly-advanced capability.

"This is so frigging powerful," Wedgetail project manager Maureen Dougherty said.

"The Australian people are going to be so proud of this capability".

I love the quote from Maureen 'frigging' Dougherty...

I wonder if this country has EVER bought anything for the defence forces that has been working as promised in the promised timeframe. It seems that everything we buy costs us 3 times as much as budgeted for, is delivered massively late and never works the way it was intended. Says a great deal about those charged with making purchase choices...

[damien b]

When you are the first customer (as Australia is in this case, and many others where budgets have blown out) it is very hard to accurately forecast problems with the project. Delays, cost overruns etc have to be expected to a degree, especially a complex project like this. Even the most experianced aircraft manufacturers (Boeing and Airbus) have experianced cost overruns and schedule delays. The people in Defence running these projects are no better than those in Boeing etc.

[Bob C]

F/A18F seems to be going OK at this stage - the first aircraft was delivered three months early and under budget.

Note : we didn't attempt to "Australianise" this aircraft which may have caused problems with some recent purchases.

[Nathan Long]

I think that the problem in many cases is that we are limited in the numbers of new defence items that we buy and try to make up for it by trying to increase capability.

I reckon that 40 years ago, there were plenty of people calling for the cancellation of the F-111 too...