HASC still waiting for updated E-7 Wedgetail funding request

The House Armed Services Committee has not received a budget amendment to fund the E-7 Wedgetail, though the Defense Department recently reversed course and promised to support the next-generation radar plane. 

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told House lawmakers that the Pentagon would amend its $1.5 trillion budget request to include Wedgetail—which had been zeroed out in favor of space-based systems. Last week, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told House lawmakers the estimated $1.5 billion amendment is “working its way” to Congress. But the initial draft of the HASC chairman’s 2027 National Defense Authorization Act released on Tuesday did not include funding for the E-7.

“The administration has indicated that they intend to send us a budget amendment to address Wedgetail, E-7, procurement in ‘27,” one senior HASC staffer told reporters Tuesday. “We haven’t received it yet, so I don’t know how much they’re seeking, and I don’t know if they’re seeking it in discretionary or mandatory, and I don’t know what they’re intending to use as an offset.”

Hesgeth told lawmakers the Pentagon’s past disregard for the E-7 resembled a “divest-to-invest mindset,” and emphasized that it has a “future” on the battlefield. The promise to renew funding followed the damage of an E-3 Sentry aircraft in the Iran war, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report. Damage to the E-3 and other support aircraft during Operation Epic Fury has led former military leaders to call for more funding for battlespace awareness upgrades and AWACS replacements, Defense One reported.

HASC said it would add the E-7 funding once they received the amendment. A White House Office Management and Budget spokesperson told Defense One it will send the updated funding request along soon.

“OMB will be sending a budget amendment to Congress in short order so it can be considered in the NDAA,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to continuing our work with Congress to fund the President’s defense priorities.”

An Air Force spokesperson previously said the service is “evaluating options to resource the E-7 program in FY 2027 to deliver Rapid Prototyping aircraft and continue Engineering and Manufacturing Development activities.” 

Meink told lawmakers in April that the service plans to buy five additional Wedgetails in addition to two prototypes already under contract. 

While there is no procurement or research and development funds for the aircraft in the House’s 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, the committee’s initial draft added an $55 million outside of the Pentagon’s budget request for a E–7 AWACS Squadron Operations Facility at Oklahoma’s Tinker Air Force Base.

“We do support the E-7 program,” the staffer said. “We would like to see that budget amendment.”