Boeing awarded $99.9 million contract for AWACS for E-3 Sentry

Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Boeing has been awarded a $99.9 million contract for Block 40/45 production of the E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The contract funds the acquisition of supplies and services for the E-3 AWACS Block 40/45 upgrade.

The E-3F Sentry AWACS is a militarized Boeing 707/320 commercial airframe with a top-mounted 30-foot rotating dome array radar and a radar array with a range of more than 250 miles.

It's been in U.S. service since 1977 and extensively upgraded: in 2018 Boeing was awarded $9.9 million to provide the AWACS fleet with 40 mission and 17 ground-system software changes and in 2017 the contractor received $93 million to provide sustainment engineering and technical services for the Air Force E-3 fleet and to generate technical requirements for the E-3s of Japan, NATO, Britain, Saudi Arabia and France.

Work will be performed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, with an expected completion date of fiscal 2024.

This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition, with fiscal 2018 and 2019 aircraft procurement funds in the amount of $42.2 million obligated that the time of the award.