There’s a new and powerful weapon that the United States Air Force has been trying to get its hands on for years, and some of the most decorated officers to ever serve in the Air Force believe it’s crucial if the US is to “prevail whenever the next conflict unfolds”.
Last year, President Donald Trump’s new leadership at the Pentagon wanted to axe the entire program, but it was saved after the remarkable intervention of sixteen retired four-star generals, including four former leaders of the US Air Force.
The generals came out publicly against the Pentagon, urging Congress to overrule it, and secure the future of US air power by acquiring the weapon: Australia’s E-7 Wedgetail.
The United States still doesn’t have one of these planes, but they might now have access to its capabilities thanks to the Albanese government, which sent one to support the US and their allies in their bombing campaign against Iran this week.
The E-7 Wedgetail has been described in the Australian media humbly and as a “small contribution”, along with the 85 ADF personnel to crew and maintain it and a batch of air-to-air missiles likely to be fired by UAE aircraft.
“These are important defensive weapons,” the Prime Minister told parliament this week, using precisely the same words Defence Minister Richard Marles chose.
What Australia’s political leaders and media haven’t told the public is that the Wedgetail is “fundamental to projecting air power and winning conflicts,” according to the letter sent to Congress by some of the most decorated US Air Force commanders alive.
The truth is, it is easily the most significant contribution Australia could make to Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s illegal, objective-less and chaotic war on Iran. Its unique capabilities mean the Wedgetail could quite literally help tip the balance of the war, if Australia allows its powers of surveillance, targeting and command to be used by Israel and the US – and there can no longer be any doubt that is exactly what the government will do.
“Despite Mr Albanese’s diplomatic language that it will only be used for defence, the Wedgetail [...] will provide intelligence for US and Israeli air strikes,” the Herald Sun reported this week, in what was intriguingly the only mainstream report that emphasised how valuable this would be.
And it became clear that the initial request for the Wedgetail came directly from the US, even if the formal written invitation was from the UAE, after Foreign Minister Penny Wong refused to answer questions to that effect six times.
