Rise Of Space-Based Aircraft Tracking Spells Threat To USAF E-7As

Billions of dollars and the fates of major programs hang in the balance in an ongoing Pentagon dispute over how to track airborne targets and manage air battles in the future.

Arguments hinge on whether synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology has advanced far enough to perform the airborne moving-target-indicator (AMTI) function from space.

• Prototype satellites are performing space-based AMTI functions
• The U.S. Air Force is defending the need for the E-7A fleet

As the White House finalizes the fiscal 2026 budget request, the Air Force’s pending investment in 26 Boeing E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft hangs on the outcome of the internal deliberations, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Pentagon agencies have sought since the late 1990s to migrate the AMTI function performed by an aging fleet of Air Force E-3 Sentry aircraft to orbit, and they are now making progress. SAR-equipped satellites are tracking moving aerial targets during an ongoing orbital demonstration, Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said on May 13.

“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 comments came in response to questioning from subcommittee Chair Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) regarding sensor and radar system options that might be incorporated into an eventual Golden Dome missile defense architecture. Guillot did not provide additional details about the prototype sensors.

The physics challenges of using spacecraft to track moving targets on the ground or in the air are daunting, requiring enormous power generation and aperture size to achieve similar signal-to-noise ratios as the AMTI-capable radars on E-3s or E-7As that fly hundreds or thousands of miles lower.

Moreover, the military space community acknowledges there are limits to the capabilities sought for space-based AMTI sensors because the tracking of supersonic and hypersonic objects is still considered a step beyond the state of the art today.

“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,” a Space Force spokesperson told Aviation Week.

That focus opens the door to tracking subsonic air-launched cruise missiles, such as Russia’s nuclear-armed Kh-102.

But such a capability still falls short of the full scope of functions provided by the E-7A. In addition to the Northrop Grumman Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar, the Wedgetail comes with a battle management command and control (BMC2) suite staffed by 10 crewmembers. The crew’s job is to process data from the MESA and other sources, develop tracks of enemy aircraft and missiles and coordinate intercepts by friendly aircraft. Now that the program’s funding is threatened within the Pentagon, Air Force leaders are saying publicly that the E-7A is needed until space-based systems are ready to take on the full scope of the 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 have to sense, make sense and act. Right now, the E-7 is the platform that delivers what the E-3 can with greater capability.”

Allvin’s response was prompted by a question from a powerful lawmaker, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the House Appropriations Committee chairman, about the readiness of space-based AMTI capabilities to replace the E-3A. Cole’s district in Oklahoma includes Tinker AFB, home to most of the E-3 fleet and future home of the E-7A.

The Air Force finalized a $2.56 billion contract with Boeing in August to convert the first two 737-700 aircraft into prototypes of the E-7A, which are scheduled for delivery in fiscal 2028. The first flight of the Air Force version of the E-7A is expected in the “coming months,” a company spokesman said.

“We look forward to supporting the U.S. Air Force on the long-term evolution of the platform capabilities and fleet mission,” the Boeing spokesman added.

The debate erupted amid a broader review of the joint air battle management portfolio by the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office last winter. In written testimony submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February for his nomination, Navy Secretary John Phelan said the study would define requirements for joint air battlement in a “high-end fight.”

One option in the study included making new investments in the land-based Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, a turboprop-powered aircraft that performs the airborne early warning and control mission from Navy carriers, Phelan said.