Garrison Davis

Not our military?

The Pentagon voted against getting into the maternity business last year.

The E-7 Wedgetail, which is in service currently in the Royal Australian Air Force, was meant to replace the E-3s for the U.S.

Air Force, and the first of 26 new craft were supposed to arrive from Boeing in 2027.

But the project was killed last summer.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued it was, quote, sort of late, more expensive, and gold-plated.

Plus, Pete warned, it might not survive a war with China.

Hegseth's plan was to just have the military use satellites for all their airborne tracking needs.

And if we had to have, you know, a plane doing some of that, we could just have Navy E-2D Hawkeyes as a temporary replacement.

Now, most of my listeners are not Air Force generals, and neither am I, but I've read stuff guys who know that kind of thing have written, and I'll tell you this, it's a bad fucking idea, or it's widely agreed by the experts to be a bad fucking idea.

For one thing, the E-7, which is what we would have been replacing our E-3s with, has already proven itself in combat.

The Aussies sent theirs over to Iraq during the fighting against ISIS, and per task and purpose, it, quote, was so reliable that whenever American F-22 fighters were in theater, the U.S.

Air Force asked the Aussies to support the U.S.

jets.

16 retired U.S.

Air Force four-star generals took the unprecedented step of writing a letter to Congress and begging them to reverse Hegseth's decision.

Their reasoning why boils down to this.

Satellites aren't ready to track airborne targets, and the Hawkeye is too small for the job.

Congress ultimately reversed course, but it's uncertain when, if ever, new E7s will arrive.

Certainly not in time for whatever the Trump administration is going to do next.