Announced today Australia is sending an E-7A Wedgetail early warning and control aircraft to the UAE by Friday 13th March 2026. A Wedgetail is based on a 737 platform, has a large radar and specialised crew of about 14 crew per watch/mission. The Wedgetail's radar is particularly useful for spotting low flying Iranian drones and cruise missiles. In all about 85 RAAF personnel are going to the UAE.
Australia has around 100 tri-service Australian Defence Force personnel at Joint Task Force 633 with vague "command and control" functions at Al Minhad Air Base. The base remains operational despite being targeted by an Iranian drone strike on March 1, 2026. Australia’s air force also uses Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, alongside the UK and US.
The Wedgetail activity is integrated with the second aspect of Australia's assistance to the UAE which is probably initially sending around 100 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM). These will likely be air-freighted with their heavy radar and coordination components to the UAE by RAAF C-17 cargo aircraft. With an average system cost to Australia of perhaps A$4.5 million each, the AMRAAMs may be launched by jets of the UAE. Also some AMRAAMs will be in ground launched NASAMS batteries.
For defence of Australia the RAAF appears to have budgeted for 400-535 AMRAAMs, for Australia's own defence,, tops. These limited stocks may be vey uneconomic if tasked to shoot down much cheaper Iranian drones and cruise missiles fired at the UAE over a very short period. Iran is firing 10s of missiles and 100s of drones over the Middle East daily.
Unfortunately AMRAAMs may currently have difficulty shooting down expensive Iranian ballistic missiles. Maybe US Patriots and other ABMs will do/are doing those jobs.
12 comments:
Singapore finally sent two Airbus A330 MRTT to Saudi to evacuate Singaporean citizens.. though my friend, who was stuck in Qatar, managed to take a bus to Saudi Arabia and arrived safely home on Monday morning...
The Wedgetail will provide valuable service against low-flying drones, which the Iranians are still managing to send across the Persian Gulf. A bulk carrier and Dubai airport just got hit, injuring 4 near the airport.
https://www.twz.com/air/massive-leap-in-ability-to-spot-iranian-drones-headed-to-persian-gulf
Local manufacture of NSM and GMLRS is all very well. Clearly though, Australia needs to acquire the capability to make reasonable numbers of SAMs and AAMs as a matter of urgency. It is evident now all our usual NATO suppliers are short themselves. Note this story below about the USA redeploying THADs from South Korea to the Middle East. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/redeployment-us-missiles-thaad-south-korea-middle-east-seoul-iran
If we aren't allowed to make AMRAAMs locally, we should talk to SAAB about making Meteors.
The orange US dismissed the offer by Ukraine for help to counter drones:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-rejected-ukraines-anti-drone-offer-months-before-iran-war-now-seeks-help-report/3858351
No cards?
Regards,
MHalblaub
Hi Shawn at 3/11/2026 7:36 PM
I'm glad your friend finally made it home.
I'm hoping the E-7 Wedgetail's talent detecting low flying drones and cruise missiles finally persuades War Secretary Hegseth to buy E-7s for the USAF.
Regards Pete
Hi MHalblaub at 3/11/2026 10:32 PM
Trump may be uneasy that the Iran's alliance with his friend Putin's-Russia is developing better drones and maybe Russia targetting assistance against US bases in the Middle East.
Thanks for https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-rejected-ukraines-anti-drone-offer-months-before-iran-war-now-seeks-help-report/3858351 Its nice to see the US appreciating Ukraine.
Cheers Pete
Thanks Anonymous at 3/11/2026 10:31 PM
Yes a shortage of SAMs and AAMs in the Western world, due to use in Ukraine and Middle East, should be rectified by more home production in Australia.
Hopefully the US will license South Korea to build THAADs even if SK is precluded from exporting any.
Regards Pete
Hi Pete, good to see the blog is doing well & I hope you are too.
I took a break from blogs & forums...it only took the start of Gulf War 3 to renew my interest in this stuff!
Cheers!
The money is beginning to flow again:
US Air Force Revives E-7A Wedgetail Work With $2.4B Boeing Contracts:
https://thedefensepost.com/2026/03/13/us-revives-wedgetail-boeing/
Thanks Anonymous at 3/14/2026 4:41 AM for
"The money is beginning to flow again: US Air Force Revives E-7A Wedgetail Work With $2.4B Boeing Contracts: https://thedefensepost.com/2026/03/13/us-revives-wedgetail-boeing/ "
Clearly the renewal of war in the Middle East has highlighted the E-7A Wedgetail's relevance.
I only hope that US industry avoids delays and cost blowouts in doing further development work on the Wedgetail.
Regards Pete
Welcome back Gessler at 3/13/2026 3:06 AM
Yes I'm well and following Gulf War 3 closely. I mainly read and write rather than drive. My car doesn't like the war induced petrol price rises - going up 15 cents/Litre every week!
A risk to the easy target? Wedgetails is any Iranian use of long range anti air missiles, like Chinese made 145-200km range PL- 15/15E AAMs.
Such a risk was realised in the latest India-Pakistan air conflict in May 2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL-15#Pakistan
"On 7 May 2025, the PL- 15/15E was deployed in combat during the 2025 India–Pakistan strikes by Pakistan Air Force (PAF), marking what analysts believe to be the missile's first combat deployment....According to the Pakistan authorities, PAF used Chengdu J-10C and PL-15/15E missiles to shoot down Indian aircraft. [even stealthy Indian Rafales].
Western intelligence agencies should watch closely whether countries are selling long range SAMs or AAMs to Iran - like China any PL-15s to Iran?
Or the Russian SAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-400_missile_system with up to 400km range.
Pete
Hi Pete,
In India the petrol/diesel prices haven't moved up, largely because the Govt & oil companies had maintained a somewhat elevated price for motor fuels for a long time, regardless of the price of oil dropping in the international markets after previous disruptions like the Ukraine war. So the oil companies have been sitting on a cash surplus for years and don't mind burning through a bit of it now in order to stabilize the market.
The bigger problem here is LNG & its derivatives (LPG, CNG etc). Local production of natural gas only meets about 40% of India's requirement and most of the remainder used to come from the Persian Gulf. Now there's a gas shortage especially for commercial establishments as the Govt wants to prioritize domestic (cooking/heating) supply until shipments from other places (US, Russia) can come in.
As of Iran, while it's a possibility that China may have supplied them advanced AAMs, it should be noted that unlike Pakistan, Iran does not have any Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft that are necessary to take full advantage of extended-range AAMs by providing targeting cues for fighters carrying those AAMs.
SAMs remain a threat but it seems the US & Israel have conducted an extensive SEAD/DEAD campaign before brining any of their aircraft into or near Iran's airspace. But from what I'm gathering, they have only obtained air superiority/air dominance over limited sections of Iranian airspace...which implies Iranian SAMs are still active in other parts of the country.
Iran already operates the older Russian S300 system which has long-range capabilities as well. So even without any S400s potentially coming in, any airborne activity near Iran is not without threat - despite the fact Iran's target-acquisition capabilities may have already been degraded significantly.
I'd say the threat to allied aircraft is actually more on the ground. Iran's drone strikes with Shahed-136 and other models have been relentless and have successfully achieved saturation effects against US military bases at several locations. Expensive & hard-to-replace assets like the AN/FPS-132 early warning radar & AN/TPY-2 radars used by THAAD batteries have been damaged and/or destroyed at multiple sites.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/iranian-attacks-on-critical-missile-defense-radars-are-a-wake-up-call
Recently, up to five USAF KC-135 tankers were supposedly struck by Iranian drones when parked at the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia (much farther from Iran than UAE):
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-889882
While smaller aircraft like fighters have some provision for Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) that can protect against the effects of most drone attacks, larger force-multiplier aircraft like KC-135 refuelers or E-3 AWACS (or indeed the Australian E-7 Wedgetails) don't have this luxury and therefore remain uniquely vulnerable.
The USAF seems to have now evacuated a lot of their vulnerable assets like the aforementioned KC-135s to bases in Europe:
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/us-evacuates-kc135-tankers-prince-sultan-air-base-iran-missile-threat-gulf/
Thanks for that huge comment Gessler - at 3/14/2026 8:10 PM
I plan to turn it into 2 articles next week:
On India import of gas and oil concerns also using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_and_gas_industry_in_India
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Russia_relations#Cooperation_in_the_energy_sector
and
Medium to Long Range AAMs and SAMs relevant to Iran war
Regards Pete
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