The E-2 airborne command and management plane, a platform that has been in service for greater than 60-years, will obtain upgrades beneath the forthcoming E-2D Superior Hawkeye Block II iteration to be used within the coming years.
Through the Chief of the Air Employees’s Air and House Energy Convention in London on 16 July, Jane Bishop, sector vice chairman and common supervisor, international surveillance, Northrop Grumman, confirmed that this iteration will likely be “fielded in a few years”.
This must be sooner quite than later because the US authorities cancelled its Boeing E-7 Wedgetail order on the finish of June 2025, as half of the present administration’s effectivity campaign. The US Division of Protection estimated prices had climbed by $136m per plane (out of 26 items), and added that there have been survivability points.
As a substitute, the US Air Pressure (USAF) has resolved to lean on space-based capabilities in addition to the legacy E-2D plane – a variant that reached initial operational capability in October 2014 – for its future airborne early warning and management (AEW&C) fleet.
US and Europe necessities
Not solely is E-2D more cost effective, however the platform is designed to deploy from plane carriers which can show invaluable in conducting Indo-Pacific operations in opposition to China.
In the meantime, the hulking Wedgetail, based mostly on the Boeing 737, has a top-hat radar that covers a considerably bigger array than the E-2D. As it’s jet-powered, Wedgetail can exceed the turboprop in pace and vary. That is one profit the Wedgetail offers one other Indo-Pacific accomplice, the Royal Australian Air Pressure, given the huge theatre stretching 100 million kilometres.
However, by the USAF’s Agile Fight Employment idea, many extra E-2Ds will likely be working throughout this area, and are extra simply changed than the advanced outfitting of Boeing 737s undertaken in the UK, whose Wedgetail take a look at flights risk delaying the programme by a number of months.
In Europe, the Wedgetail offers extra space for capabilities, plus a higher and extra highly effective radar vary.
What can we anticipate from the E-2D Block II?
“We’re at the moment within the midst of growth [for Block II], working our manner as much as [critical design review],” Bishop specified.
“Yesterday’s E-2 is definitely not right now’s E-2,” she added. “One of many issues which have been very efficient is partnering with our final prospects on functionality roadmaps.”
Specifically, Bishop decided “it’s essential that we’re pivoting to open mission system structure – that’s one thing we’re doing by our Block II configuration”.
A Modular Open Methods Strategy (MOSA) is an design technique that favours constructing methods with impartial, interchangeable components (modules) that adhere to open requirements. Crucially, the open enterprise mannequin permits sharing threat, maximising reuse of belongings, and decreasing possession value.
Whereas Bishop lauds the MOSA idea for E-2D, the open methods problem doesn’t finish with trade.
From its evaluation of 20 acquisition programmes, the Authorities Accountability Workplace discovered that the US authorities does not consistently coordinate design decisions throughout its portfolio. Which means the US navy will miss alternatives to save cash by sharing widespread components throughout completely different programmes.
One other essential future functionality to enhance the E-2D plane would be the integration of synthetic intelligence. By the enabling capabilities of MOSA, AI will likely be used to expedite tactical decision-making inside the command and management platform.
Past these new advances, the plane will even endure a considerable overhaul in changing the extant built-in navigation, controls, and show methods in addition to the tactical mission laptop with modern cockpit technology.
