A planned shift by the U.S. Air Force to more space-based surveillance systems has put the purchase of 26 new E-7 Wedgetail radar aircraft on the budget chopping block. The Boeing 737 Next Gen-based Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) platform is touted for low operating costs and higher mission reliability, compared with the existing E-3. The E-7 is currently in service or on contract with Australia, South Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
But with the Trump administration leaning toward more space-oriented surveillance systems, the future of the E-7 acquisition is under new scrutiny. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at a House appropriations defense subcommittee hearing, “If we have systems and platforms that are not survivable in the modern battlefield or they don’t give us an advantage in a future fight, we have to make the tough decisions right now. The E-7 is an example of that.”
As reported by online news source Defense One, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said of the shift to space-based surveillance, “We just need to ensure that we’re adequately covering all parts of that as we [make the] migration, before we just go from one domain to another.”
Another short sighted decision. Space based assets will be the first thing the Chinese and Russians will go after. Same dumb decision as getting rid of LORAN, but I digress…
Anything the current administration wants to do is very suspect! With Pete Heggs worth running things Russia and China must be very excited!
Interesting choice of words by the defense secretary. On battlefield survivability, let’s assume a high-intensity, contested battlespace - war with Russia or China. Satellites on their own are sitting ducks and leaves the US vulnerable. For resilience, much better to have a mix (tw, the same goes for navaids!).
Further let me suggest that it’s true that in the long run, except for static and stable contexts, diversity confers general adaptability and resilience. You’d be wrong to think that the world order right now is static and stable.
I worked 40 years in the space industry, including 35 at Boeing. The only aircraft project I worked on was when I was on loan for three months to the P-8 Poseidon program.
They brought me in to analyze a new capability they wanted to add to the aircraft. But after a short time, the Government decided it was more cost-effective to forward the raw data to the CONUS via satellite than to add the capability for the aircraft to produce the results.
Having worked on studies to disrupt, kill, or defend satellites for many years prior to that, I tried to raise holy hell. Space assets are going to be the first targets in a war…communications links first of all. The Russians developed their first ground-based anti-satellite weapon about 50 years ago. Easy enough to jam signals from space or ground, it’s less easy to intercept and destroy satellites, but all it takes is a smart satellite or a “smart brick”… like WE demonstrated forty years ago (F-15 launched ASAT).
One factor people lose track of is the “political invulnerability” of space assets. If the Russians or Chinese shoot down a pack of E-3s or P-8s, they kill American service people, and the US Government will have little choice but to escalate.
But if they put a high-velocity BB into a reconnaissance satellite…or park a microsat singing “The East is Red” next to a US Comsat, jamming its communications links…the average American won’t see that as a threat serious enough to go to war over.
Ya gotta have a good plan “B” and that includes airborne information and control assets. Couldn’t agree more with ground based Loran or Loran E. The submarine VLF stuff is just that and needs to be supplemented with a launchable, repairable, versatile and cost effective airborne presence like the E7.
Military has a habit of not having capability to meet all types of threats.
(BTW, VLF is long gone, replaced on US nuclear submarines by light of a wavelength that penetrates water. Yes, satellite dependent.)
Digressing, if you want an exciting hike, USN A-6 or replacement may still be training ridge hopping in Jim Creek valley in the North Cascades. Former site of VLF antennas strung across the valley.