According to the Desert Eagle, the Air Force Combat Weather Team is doing a “great job” forecasting Southwest Asia area thunder and lightening storms, especially considering their lack of desert training. They “nailed” one recent forecast three days out, said Col. John Norton, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing vice commander. The CWT worked continuously during the storm to update conditions, enabling an aeromedical flight to land as scheduled within minutes of a dramatic loss of visibility.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.