RAF Wedgetails to Lossiemouth

[dromia]

I'm a Brora man born and bred with my family having lived on our "croft" since the 1600s and when I walk through the village nowadays I am a stranger in my own home.

 

Lossiemouth was great source of entertainment of me as a bairn in the 60s watching all the daily "airshows" and the spectacular night time NATO exercises, when working out the hill you would be looking down into the Buccaneers cockpits as well as the odd Shackleton.

 

The of course there were the happy weekends there with the ATC.

 

Nowadays you can still hear the current crop of RAF aircraft thundering up and down presumably still the Tain ranges but 'tis now damn hard to spot them which I presume is due to the efficacy of the paint schemes.

[Des]

Wedgetail and the complete Poseidon order are not there yet and judging by all of the money previously spent elsewhere preparing other former Scottish airbases for a bright new future that never came and the 'promises' made by politicians and senior military over the past decade or so regarding the RAF presence in Scotland the current expansion at Lossiemouth might not neccesarily guarantee that what is being said today will count for very much in a couple of years and that has nothing whatsoever to do with any nationalist pretensions just the shorttermism of post-Cold War defence policy.

 

On the other hand could come in handy to be taken over by the Moray Whisky , Salmon , Soup and Shortbread industries to export their products instead of them 'going off' in the ever expanding Kentish lorry parks.

[Slater]

Capability-wise, is the Wedgetail design superior to the E-3 Sentry? I would think that technology has come a long way since the E-3's introduction.

[Truro Model Builder]

33 minutes ago, Slater said:

Capability-wise, is the Wedgetail design superior to the E-3 Sentry? I would think that technology has come a long way since the E-3's introduction.

 

So it would seem.

 

https://airpower.airforce.gov.au/APDC/media/Events-Media/Seminars/SMR15-2015_09_01-Advise-and-Strike-The-Development-of-the-E7-A-Wedgetail-SQNLDR-Glenn-Salmon_Transcript.pdf

[EwenS]

The worry about the Wedgetail for me is how long it will continue to be developed. 

 

It took a long time to get into operational service with the RAAF in 2009. Earlier this year the RAAF published its long term replacement plans for it. Funding for improvements is planned out to the late 1920s after which funding is to switch to a currently unknown replacement. The only other countries with it are South Korea and Turkey. The total fleet at present is 14 plus the RAF order for 5 (or will it be 4 or 3?).

 

US replacement plans for the E-3 call for a new platform by the mid 2030s. They have been constantly upgraded since introduced to service. The only reason we have to buy the E-7 now is that we refused to fund updates to our E-3Ds some 10 years ago. Our procurement plans in this area now seem out of line time wise compared with the likes of USAF, NATO and the RAAF.

 

 

Edit:- and two of our airframes are to be second hand airliner airframes.

Edited December 23, 2020 by EwenS

[Slater]

By 2030, the E-3's mission may well be performed by drones or some other technology.

[Truro Model Builder]

On 12/23/2020 at 9:02 PM, EwenS said:

The worry about the Wedgetail for me is how long it will continue to be developed. 

 

It took a long time to get into operational service with the RAAF in 2009. Earlier this year the RAAF published its long term replacement plans for it. Funding for improvements is planned out to the late 1920s after which funding is to switch to a currently unknown replacement. The only other countries with it are South Korea and Turkey. The total fleet at present is 14 plus the RAF order for 5 (or will it be 4 or 3?).

 

US replacement plans for the E-3 call for a new platform by the mid 2030s. They have been constantly upgraded since introduced to service. The only reason we have to buy the E-7 now is that we refused to fund updates to our E-3Ds some 10 years ago. Our procurement plans in this area now seem out of line time wise compared with the likes of USAF, NATO and the RAAF.

 

 

Edit:- and two of our airframes are to be second hand airliner airframes.

 

Unfortunately the situation is what it is, and the MoD has belatedly realised we need the capability now.

 

The two airframes to be converted are stored white tails that have only flown their initial flight tests. They have not been fitted out as airliners and have not been used by any commercial operator.

[EwenS]

On 27/12/2020 at 11:11, Truro Model Builder said:

 

Unfortunately the situation is what it is, and the MoD has belatedly realised we need the capability now.

 

The two airframes to be converted are stored white tails that have only flown their initial flight tests. They have not been fitted out as airliners and have not been used by any commercial operator.

 

It seems at least the first airframe might have a few more miles than “initial flight tests”. A 10 year old B737-700 BBJ previously owned by Deer Jet, a Chinese charter airline and currently in store at San Bernardino.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/38536/first-royal-air-force-wedgetail-radar-plane-will-be-converted-from-ex-chinese-airliner

 

[Truro Model Builder]

On 1/10/2021 at 11:55 PM, EwenS said:

 

It seems at least the first airframe might have a few more miles than “initial flight tests”. A 10 year old B737-700 BBJ previously owned by Deer Jet, a Chinese charter airline and currently in store at San Bernardino.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/38536/first-royal-air-force-wedgetail-radar-plane-will-be-converted-from-ex-chinese-airliner

 

 

I appreciate the irony of using a former Chinese registered aircraft, and while the airframe will be totally rebuilt, you cannot help but wonder at the decision making. A ten year old aircraft? Really?

 

Yeah yeah, I know. The RC-135s are much older...