U.S. Air Force Delays E-3 AWACS Upgrade Program

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The U.S. Air Force has delayed the upgrade program of E-3G Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft, according to a report by Inside Defense.

The report states that the U.S. Air Force has delayed E-3 AWACS Block 40/45 upgrade program stemming from shortfalls identified during testing and delays in delivering new hardware by prime contractor Boeing.

“In November, the service formally advised lawmakers of a revised acquisition strategy for the AWACS Block 40/45 program to reflect pushing the planned date for full operational capability required assets available from November 2023 to May 2024,” reports Inside Defense.

The E-3 Block 40/45, designated E-3G, modifications include incremental updates to the business-grade commercial mission computing systems in the aircraft, ground support systems, and application software to address diminishing manufacturing resources, correction to deficiencies identified through testing and operational use, and to add enhancements.

According to GlobalSecurity.org, the Block 40/45 modification system upgrade replaces the 1970’s vintage mission computer system with an open system, LAN-based architecture.

The E-3G aircraft carries an upgraded computer platform for their weapons and surveillance scopes, known as the 4045. It advances their old operating system by about 30 years.

The E-3G’s mission computing system provides the capability to automatically fuse all on- and off-board sensor inputs to provide a single track for each air, sea, and land entity using a multi-sensor integration algorithm.

Also, the E-3G upgrade will include a deployable ground support system to enable deployed crews to conduct mission planning and post mission processing with a central data processing center for data storage and retrieval.

Initial System Development and Design began in 2003 and cost $2.7 billion.