Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total cost to the public purse is of the five multi-role electronically scanned array radars as part of the E-7 Wedgetail programme.

The cost of procurement for the Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar is approximately £60 million each, therefore approximately £300 million in total. In March 2021, a decision was taken to reduce the numbers of E-7 Wedgetail platforms from five to three.

Parts from the radars originally planned for aircraft four and five will be retained for spares allowing a saving /offset of initial procurement and future sustainment requirements from the overall programme cost.