BROWN ISN'T READY TO BOY E-7 WEDGETAIL YET

摘要

The Air Force's chief of staff wants to take a deliberative approach to replacing the aging E-3 airborne early warning and control planes. In other words, he isn't ready to commit to the Boeing-made E-7 Wedgetail, despite support from the service's top general in the Asia-Pacific region. "I want to actually look at what options do we have," Gen. CQ Brown said during a Feb. 25 round-table with reporters at the Air Force Association's Aerospace Warfare Symposium. "It would be premature for me to commit to the Wedgetail right now, or a timeline. This is something I have to spend a little more time on looking at. But I realize there are some Wedgetail fans out there." One of those fans is Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, who told reporters Feb. 24 that he is in favor of a near-term purchase of the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail to replace the aging E-3 Sentry, which is based on the older Boeing 707 and colloquially called "AWACS."