Australia: Wedgetail to Perform as Specified

Australia still expects to get the full radar performance required under its contract for six Boeing 737 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, whose program is more than three years behind schedule.

"The system has the potential to continue to grow into a worldclass AEW&C capability," the Defense Department manager for the project, Air Vice Marshal Chris Deeble, tells an Australian parliamentary committee.

"We have made no concessions to Boeing," he says. "Neither have they sought any concessions to a reduction in the performance."

But he adds that not all program risks have been mitigated.

Australia should have received its first Wedgetail as a fully operational aircraft in November 2006. As Boeing has struggled with integrating the electronic systems on the aircraft, that has slipped to delivery in November 2009 of a single unit that will have only limited capability. The other five are due to follow by the middle of 2010 and, supposedly, offer full capability.

Australia's patience with the Wedgetail program can be explained by the aircraft's central place in the highly networked defense force that the country wants to field. Deeble has previously said it was critical for Australia that the aircraft reach its specification, implying that delays would be much less serious than underperformance.

His latest comments were reported by the Australian Associated Press.

Photo: Boeing