Posted on 05/05/2010 7:53:30 PM PDT by myknowledge
THE Royal Australian Air Force has taken ownership of its first two Wedgetail Early Warning and Control aircraft but the troubled $4.2 billion contract will remain on the infamous projects of concern black list.
Speaking today at a formal handover at Williamtown air base, Defence Materiel and Science Minister Greg Combet said good progress had been made in the last two years to overcome technical problems with the aircraft.
But until bugs in the promised performance specifications of the aircraft's advanced MESA radar are resolved, Wedgetail will stay listed in the black book, his office confirmed to The Australian.
These mostly involve the aircraft's advanced radar capable of monitoring a 400,000 sq km area at any one time.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...

RAAF Boeing 737 Wedgetail AWACS.
They look like airplane-shaped external fuel tanks belonging to a much larger, but completely invisible, aircraft.
I knew the Aussie Crew that had to live in Seattle for 2 years to wait for that baby.
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