Air Force Asking for $1.5B to Fund E-7 in 2027

The Air Force is working on a $1.5 billion budget amendment to restore funding for the E-7A Wedgetail in fiscal 2027, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers May 20.

E-7 funding will then continue in 2028 and beyond, with the first five production aircraft to be funded then, Meink told the House Armed Services Committee.

The request is “working its way through the system right now,” Meink said. “Our plan is to submit a budget adjustment to fund the FY 27 and, as we do the [fiscal 2028 budget] to lay in the production of the seven aircraft.” That would include five production jets plus two rapid prototypes.

The Pentagon tried to zero out E-7 funding in the 2026 budget, but Congress reversed the decion and funded the program anyway. The original 2027 budget plan also zeroed out the program, before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reversed course, announcing at a May 12 hearing that the program would be funded.

Built by Boeing, the E-7 is an airborne battle management jet based on Boeing’s 737 airliner; the Royal Australian Air Force already has several of the jets, and the Air Force set out to build a fleet of up to 26 E-7s to replace its fleet of aging E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, planes.

The E-3 fleet, based on Boeing’s 1960s-era 707 airframe, has been in service since the 1970s, and now counts just 15 jets. Air Force officials have repeatedly said the jets themselves are growing harder to maintain and their sensors capabilities are lacking against modern threats. The fleet shrunk to 15 in April when an AWACS jet was destroyed during an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.

Meink explained the reasoning behind earlier plans to cut the Wedgetail, noting that with a total Defense budget of $890 billion, “we could not afford” the E-7. “At the $890 [billion] mark, we were cutting things that we didn’t want to cut,” Meink said. “Now we have enough flexibility to put some of that back in, and that was one of the airplanes that went on” the list of funded programs.”

The Trump administration is seeking a record $1.5 trillion defense budget package for 2027, changing the underlying assumptions of what does and doesn’t get funded. Meink said the Air Force “had a plan to do [the mission] without the E-7, using space-based” assets, but having “the E-7 helps make that problem easier.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach underscored Meink’s comments, saying the Wedgetail provides “the highest capability to be flexible and get the air battle manager in the right space, at the right time, to manage that battle.”

Eventually, Meink said, the Air Force wants a combination of space-based and airborne moving target indication assets “working together.” Meink asked lawmakers to support the Air Force in its efforts to create an integrated space- and air-based architecture.

Meink also said the E-7 is intended to be a “multi-use platform,” and could potentially play a role in the Pentagon’s Golden Dome for America missile defense shield.

The proposed $1.5 billion budget amendment appears to be welcomed in Congress, and E-7 procurement likewise appears to have bipartisan support. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), whose district includes Tinker Air Force Base, home of much of the E-3 fleet, is a longtime advocate for the program.

“We’re going to be supportive on the Appropriations Committee and try to help the Air Force and the military in general get to where it needs to be,” Cole said in a May 14 interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. “How expansive their plans are, I just don’t know yet, but I do know it’s an important capability.”

Not yet clear is how many E-7s the Air Force ultimately aims to buy. The final number could be well short of the original plan for 26.

“It’s going to take a while to get the number of E-7s that we need and the capability that we need, and that’s multiple budget cycles,” Cole said.

The $1.5 trillion budget proposal on which the Pentagon is relying will also face headwinds in Congress. Cole said he would be “surprised” if a defense budget were signed into law before the end of the fiscal year, as Congress heads into midterm elections this fall. Congress often fails to pass a budget before the end of the fiscal year, which forces the Pentagon and other agencies to rely on continuing resolutions for months at a time.

“All that complicates productive long-term planning from the Pentagon’s standpoint,” Cole said. “It’s not their fault. It’s just the reality. … They’ve got to think through, how can I acquire the platforms I need, how can I sustain that platform over decades, when I’ve got a very volatile political environment right now?”

Cole said the air campaign against Iran “was a good reminder” of the utility of airborne battle management, even from an aircraft as old as the E-3, and helped demonstrate the Air Force’s need for the E-7.

“There’s a lot at stake here,” Cole said. “There’s a capability here we don’t want to lose that we think is absolutely critical to being successful, particularly against the near-peer power, so I think all those things came together.”