{"id":6406131,"date":"2026-07-20T11:48:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/raf-second-e-7-wedgetail-wt002-first-flight-green-primer-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:08:52","slug":"raf-second-e-7-wedgetail-wt002-first-flight-green-primer-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/raf-second-e-7-wedgetail-wt002-first-flight-green-primer-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The RAF&#8217;s Newest Jet Is Bright Green"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><\/p>\r\n<p>If you happened to be at Birmingham Airport on the afternoon of 15 July, you would have seen something that looked like a mistake: a Boeing 737 with a large rectangular fin bolted to its spine, painted an unlovely metallic green, climbing out over the West Midlands.<\/p>\r\n<p>It was not a mistake. It was WT002, the second of the Royal Air Force's three E-7 Wedgetails, making its first flight since being torn apart and rebuilt as an airborne early warning aircraft. It stayed up for about two hours. Boeing confirmed the flight the following day.<\/p>\r\n<p>The green is the interesting part, and it is worth explaining, because almost every new aircraft you have ever seen photographed has been through this stage and almost nobody photographs it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f5f5f5; padding: 20px; border-radius: 8px; margin: 24px 0; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.8;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 10px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 17px;\">Quick Facts<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> WT002, second of three RAF E-7 Wedgetail AEW Mk1<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Flight:<\/strong> 15 July 2026, from Birmingham Airport, about two hours<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>What it was:<\/strong> first functional check flight after conversion<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Converted by:<\/strong> STS Aviation Services, Birmingham Airport<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Base airframe:<\/strong> Boeing 737 Next Generation<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Radar:<\/strong> Northrop Grumman MESA, built into the dorsal fin, no rotating dome<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Fleet:<\/strong> five ordered in 2019, cut to three in the 2021 Integrated Review<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Operator:<\/strong> VIII Squadron, RAF Lossiemouth<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><strong>Replaces:<\/strong> the E-3D Sentry, retired in 2021<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">Why it is green<\/h2>\r\n<p>The coating is primer. Aluminium aircraft structures corrode, and they start corroding the moment they are exposed, so a converted airframe gets sealed in a protective layer as soon as the metalwork is finished. The green tint comes from the chromate compounds traditionally used in aerospace primers. It is temporary, it is functional, and it also serves as the base coat for the finished paint scheme.<\/p>\r\n<p>What is unusual is flying in it. Most aircraft are painted before they fly because paint is applied on the ground and grounded aircraft cost money. But on a conversion programme the sequence runs differently: prove the aeroplane works, then spend three weeks and several hundred kilograms making it look like an air force owns it. WT002 will go for paint before entering the test and evaluation phase.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin: 0 0 24px; width: 100%;\"><img data-opt-id=1901104383  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; border-radius: 6px;\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/raf-e-3d-sentry-awacs-retired-2021.jpg\" alt=\"Royal Air Force E-3D Sentry AWACS aircraft\" width=\"1024\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" \/>\r\n<figcaption style=\"font-size: 13px; color: #777; text-align: center; margin-top: 6px; font-style: italic;\">The RAF E-3D Sentry, retired in 2021. Its rotating radar dome is the design the Wedgetail deliberately abandons. Photo: UK MOD via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">The gap this is closing<\/h2>\r\n<p>Britain retired its E-3D Sentry fleet in 2021 and has been without a sovereign airborne early warning aircraft ever since. Five years is a long time for a nuclear-armed NATO member with global commitments to have no way of seeing beyond the horizon on its own.<\/p>\r\n<p>The first aircraft, WT001, arrived at RAF Lossiemouth on 21 May after systems activation and radar calibration work at Boscombe Down. It is in the final stages of ground and flight testing before formal handover from Boeing to the RAF. The third and last airframe is still in conversion at Birmingham.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f8f9fa; border-left: 4px solid #1565c0; padding: 20px 22px; margin: 18px 0 24px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7; display: flex; gap: 20px; align-items: flex-start;\">\r\n<div><em>\u201cThe first E-7 was transited up to Lossiemouth back in May and is now undergoing the final stages of ground and flight testing. We have got a dedicated, focused team up there now who certainly see the need to get that capability completed and handed over to the RAF and in use.\u201d<\/em>\r\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; color: #555;\"><strong>Ben Kelsey<\/strong> \u2014 Fixed-wing director, Boeing, speaking at a media briefing in July 2026<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>The phrase to notice there is \"see the need.\" Service entry has been promised for 2026 and Boeing has still not named a handover date. Nobody involved is relaxed about the schedule.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">Three aircraft, and the arithmetic of that<\/h2>\r\n<p>Britain signed for five Wedgetails in 2019. The 2021 Integrated Review cut that to three as a cost-saving measure, and that decision has been argued about ever since.<\/p>\r\n<p>The arithmetic is unforgiving. With three airframes, one in deep maintenance and one in training or transit leaves you one aircraft. Sustaining a single orbit continuously over any length of time is difficult. Sustaining two is not realistic. For comparison, Australia, which originated the type, operates six.<\/p>\r\n<p>What Britain does have is a very good aircraft. The E-7 replaces the E-3's rotating dome with a fixed Northrop Grumman MESA array in a dorsal fin, which sounds like a detail and is not. A mechanically rotating antenna can only look where it happens to be pointing. An electronically scanned array steers its beam instantly and can search, track and control fighters at the same time, in different directions, without moving a single part.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin: 24px 0;\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0; border-radius: 8px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sYAk3fFacCE\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-no-lazy=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>The video above is a walkthrough of an Australian E-7A, which will give you a far better sense of the interior than any photograph of the outside. The RAF aircraft is the same basic machine.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top: 22px;\">The money underneath<\/h2>\r\n<p>The flight was not the only Wedgetail news that week. Boeing Defence UK was awarded a sustainment contract worth about 127.5 million pounds to support the E-7 fleet, part of more than 240 million pounds in RAF support work that also includes a 115.2 million pound extension covering the nine P-8 Poseidons at Lossiemouth. The E-7 award is expected to support around 180 jobs in Scotland, with 60 to 80 more to be created and four apprenticeships.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f8f9fa; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 20px 22px; margin: 18px 0 24px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7; display: flex; gap: 20px; align-items: flex-start;\">\r\n<div><em>\u201cThis work not only supports critical defence capabilities but also creates high-value UK jobs, nurtures a strong apprenticeship pipeline, and drives regional economic growth in Scotland.\u201d<\/em>\r\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; font-size: 14px; color: #555;\"><strong>Thom Breckenridge<\/strong> \u2014 Managing director, Boeing Defence UK<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>Sustainment contracts are the least glamorous documents in defence and among the most revealing. You do not sign a multi-year support deal for a fleet you expect to be arguing about. Putting the maintenance workforce in place at Lossiemouth is Boeing and the Ministry of Defence both behaving as though the Wedgetail is about to become a real, flying, operational thing rather than a programme.<\/p>\r\n<p>Which, green paint and all, it now nearly is.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Sources: ADS Advance, FlightGlobal, Aerospace Global News, Aviation Week, Royal Air Force, Army Recognition.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background: #f0f4ff; border-left: 4px solid #5C91FF; padding: 16px 20px; margin: 32px 0 8px; border-radius: 0 8px 8px 0;\">\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0 0 8px; font-weight: 600; color: #333;\">Related Posts<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/e-7-wedgetail-arrives-raf-lossiemouth-may-2026\/\">RAF E-7 Wedgetail Arrives at Lossiemouth, Five-Year AEW Gap Closed<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/awacs-e3-sentry-changed-air-warfare-desert-storm-airborne-radar\/\">How AWACS Changed Air Warfare<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 4px 0;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/uk-298-billion-defence-investment-plan-sixth-gen\/\">Britain's 298 Billion Defence Investment Plan, Explained<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WT002, the RAF&#8217;s second E-7 Wedgetail, flew from Birmingham on 15 July 2026 in green primer. Why new aircraft fly unpainted, and what three airframes really buys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":6405971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6406131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The RAF&#039;s Newest Jet Is Bright Green<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WT002, the RAF&#039;s second E-7 Wedgetail, made its first post-conversion flight from Birmingham on 15 July 2026, still in green primer. 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