Fed: Wedgetail future on the line

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2009
Fed: Wedgetail future on the line

By Max Blenkin, Defence Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 16 AAP - The future of the RAAF's $3.45 billion Wedgetail airborne
early warning and control (AEW and C) aircraft project is on the line.

Defence is soon to receive a series of reports which could lead to cancellation of
the troubled project, now running three years behind schedule.

Should that occur, the loss to the Commonwealth would dwarf the disastrous Seasprite
project, cancelled last year at a cost of $1 billion.

It would also leave Australia without long-awaited AEW and C aircraft, a vital element
of future air combat capability.

Warren King, general manager of programs for the Defence Materiel Organisation, said
the Wedgetail program remained very challenged and under intense pressure from Australia
and prime contractor Boeing.

Mr King said the two key problems related to performance of the aircraft's advanced
MESA radar and the electronic surveillance systems.

He said defence had commissioned the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln
Laboratory to assess radar performance and judge whether it could achieve the desired
capability.

As well, the RAAF will conduct tests of a Wedgetail aircraft under Australian conditions
next month.

The Lincoln report is imminent.

Mr King said the intention was to assess this report, the RAAF trials and other tests
conducted in the US to determine whether the radar technology could mature over time.

"If it has no future there is no point going forward with it," he told a parliamentary committee.

"Bluntly speaking, it would be - is there a future or not for this technology? The
extreme of that is to recommend to cancel the program."

Mr King said much of Wedgetail was at or near doing exactly what it should. But it
was clear some elements of Wedgetail radar performance would not meet RAAF technical specifications,
but it wasn't clear by how much.

"We still have to get air force's view about what does that shortfall mean operationally,"

he said.

Mr King said defence and Boeing were aiming for an end of June deadline, although there
might not be enough information to make a decision until July, August or even September.

He said Australia was only paying the contract fee and the real issue was not having
the military capability.

The Boeing 737 Wedgetail was chosen in 1999 at the conclusion of a protracted project
definition and procurement process launched in the 1980s.

Australia opted for six Boeing 737 aircraft, each equipped with the advanced Northrop
Grumman MESA radar which appeared to offer very considerable advantages over elderly rotating
antenna radar systems on US E-2 and E-3 aircraft.

But that required substantial development to produce a mature capability.

Wedgetail was initially promised for delivery in 2006, but under a revised schedule
the first aircraft should arrive this November with a limited capability suitable for
training, but not operations.

AAP mb/jfm/mn

KEYWORD: WEDGETAIL

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