Gaining altitude

The Wedgetail enters RAAF service

The RAAF formally took delivery of the first two of six Boeing 737 Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft at a ceremony at RAAF Williamtown on May 5. The official handover has seen the two aircraft brought onto the RAAF’s register with 2SQN, a large proportion of the project’s contracted fees paid to Boeing, and comes six months after an ‘initial’ handover took place late last year.

That initial handover followed on from a contract settlement reached between the DMO and Boeing late last year, and allowed 2SQN crews to access the aircraft for training and familiarisation, and to exercise the immature support and sustainment system. The two aircraft remained on the US civil register and Boeing test crews were required to fly with and oversee maintenance work on the aircraft at all times. But May’s delivery ceremony saw the documentation and ‘keys’ to the aircraft handed over to the RAAF from Boeing, and the ‘N’ registrations replaced with the Australian state registrations, A30-001 and A30-004.