Australia deploys E-7A Wedgetail aircraft to UAE and helps stop Iranian drone and missile attacks.

Australia deploys an E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft to the United Arab Emirates to improve airspace monitoring over the Persian Gulf amid Iranian drone and missile attacks.

Australia deploys an E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft to the United Arab Emirates to help detect drones and cruise missiles approaching across the Persian Gulf. The deployment follows large-scale Iranian strikes that forced the UAE to intercept more than 1,500 rockets and drones, while regional radar infrastructure suffered damage.
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During each mission, the E-7A can monitor more than four million square kilometers of airspace, an area comparable to the size of Western Australia and larger than the entire contiguous United States east of the Mississippi River. (Picture source: Australian MoD)

On March 10, 2026, Australia confirmed the deployment of an E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft to the United Arab Emirates together with about 85 Australian Defence Force personnel for an initial four-week mission intended to strengthen airspace monitoring over the Persian Gulf. The deployment follows an escalation of Iranian reprisals across the region, affecting 12 countries and forcing the UAE to intercept more than 1,500 rockets and drones during the opening phase of the conflict. Canberra also intends to supply AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles to the Emirates after a formal request for assistance.

Australian authorities stressed that the mission remains defensive and does not involve offensive action against Iran or the deployment of Australian ground forces. The government also linked the decision to the presence of roughly 115,000 Australians across the Middle East, including about 24,000 residents in the UAE, and to ongoing evacuation operations that have already brought more than 2,600 Australians home while crisis response teams continue to provide consular assistance in the region. For the United Arab Emirates, the arrival of the E-7A addresses a surveillance requirement created after Iran's sustained aerial attacks damaged parts of the region’s long-range, ground-based radar infrastructure.

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)'s E-7A will restore and extend the early warning coverage available across the Gulf while operating in coordination with existing Emirati surface-to-air missile units and fighter jets. By orbiting at high altitude above maritime and coastal approaches, the aircraft can extend the radar horizon over large parts of the Persian Gulf where coastal sensors have limited line of sight. This improves the detection timeline for incoming drones and cruise missiles approaching from the sea or from neighbouring territories. The Emiratis have already intercepted a large number of Iranian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones during the conflict, a volume of engagements that gradually reduces interceptor stockpiles and increases the need to allocate missiles more efficiently.

Australia’s experience with the E-7A Wedgetail stretches back several decades. Work for an Australian airborne early warning capability began to be evaluated in the 1980s before the government moved forward with Project Wedgetail in the 1990s to create a dedicated command and surveillance aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Boeing was selected in 1999 to deliver AEW&C aircraft based on the Boeing 737-700, and extensively modified with radar, communication systems, and mission management equipment. Development required major integration work between all of these subsystems, which delayed delivery schedules until the first two E-7As were handed over in 2009.

The fleet eventually reached six Wedgetails delivered between 2009 and 2012 and is operated by No. 2 Squadron from RAAF Base Williamtown near Newcastle. The aircraft achieved initial operational capability in November 2012 and, since then, has served as the centre of Australia’s airborne command and control capability. For the RAAF, the operational experience accumulated rapidly after the E-7A entered service. The first operational sortie took place in April 2014 during the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, where it helped coordinate maritime patrol aircraft searching vast ocean areas. In October 2014, the aircraft conducted its first combat mission over Iraq, supporting air operations against the Islamic State, where it coordinated fighters and maintained the air picture across the theater.

By May 2015, the fleet had achieved full operational capability and began flying extended combat missions, including sorties lasting more than 17 hours supported by two aerial refuelings. Wedgetails then operated continuously in the Middle East between 2014 and 2019, achieving high mission completion rates while coordinating dozens of coalition aircraft. More recently, the E-7A was deployed to Europe in October 2023 and again in August 2025 to help monitor airspace activity connected to the war in Ukraine. One of the key reasons behind the E-7A’s effectiveness in detecting low-flying drones and cruise missiles lies in its radar architecture. The E-7A carries the Northrop Grumman Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar mounted on a dorsal fin above the fuselage rather than in a rotating radome.

This radar uses electronic beam steering to scan the airspace rather than mechanical rotation, allowing both the beam to shift between sectors within milliseconds, and the radar to scan multiple sectors of airspace simultaneously while maintaining full 360-degree coverage around the aircraft. The MESA radar can also conduct air and maritime search at the same time and detect airborne targets at ranges exceeding 400 km, with longer detection distances possible in certain flight geometries. Electronic scanning also allows rapid revisit of specific sectors, which is important when tracking small radar cross-section objects such as drones. The radar is supported by mission computers and ten operator consoles that process tracking data and manage the air picture in real time.

The E-7A’s flight altitude further increases the effectiveness of the radar against low altitude threats. A simplified radar horizon formula (distance ≈ 4.12 × √height) shows why altitude matters: a radar mounted only 10 m above the surface sees roughly 13 km, while the same radar used at 12,500 m (41,000 ft) by an E-7A can theoretically observe more than 450 km. Because radar detection depends on line of sight, a sensor placed close to sea level cannot detect objects flying below the curvature of the earth until they approach relatively short distances. A radar carried at high altitude can observe much further across the surface because the radar horizon expands as the altitude increases.

When the Wedgetail is operating above the Gulf, this mathematical formula allows detection of low-flying cruise missiles or drones much earlier in their approach path, therefore increasing engagement timelines from seconds to several minutes, depending on the speed and trajectory of the incoming threat. Another factor is the scale of surveillance coverage generated by the Wedgetail. During each mission, the E-7A can monitor more than four million square kilometers of airspace, an area comparable to the size of Western Australia and larger than the entire contiguous United States east of the Mississippi River.

Such coverage is particularly relevant in environments where saturation attacks involve large numbers of drones or missiles that may approach from multiple axes simultaneously, including maritime routes across the Persian Gulf and inland corridors across neighbouring states. The radar can track up to 180 targets at once and still maintain persistent situational awareness over wide areas without gaps created by terrain or coastline geography. When dozens of threats appear within the surveillance envelope, the E-7A crew can monitor each track, classify potential threats, and ensure that the UAE's defensive systems receive accurate targeting information to prioritise intercepts.

The E-7A Wedgetail also acts as a command and control center that connects multiple layers of air defence into a single operational network. Inside the aircraft, a mission crew consisting of air battle managers and electronics analysts operates ten consoles connected to tactical communications systems, including HF, VHF, UHF, Link-11, Link-16, and satellite communications. These links allow the Wedgetail to distribute target coordinates and tracking information directly to fighter jets, ships, and surface-to-air missile batteries, and in real time. Concretely, during an engagement, the crew can assign interceptors, direct fighter patrols toward approaching targets, and prevent several defensive systems from engaging the same target unnecessarily. This coordination is particularly important for the UAE right now, when large numbers of drones or cruise missiles coming from Iran approach simultaneously, because they require the rapid allocation of limited interceptor missiles and careful management of the defensive network.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.