Overview
- The House Appropriations Committee included $1.55 billion in its fiscal 2027 defense bill on Thursday to deliver two E‑7 Wedgetail prototype aircraft and to continue engineering and manufacturing development work.
- The Office of Management and Budget had proposed moving about $651 million from the Navy’s E‑2D Hawkeye account and $899 million from an Air Force procurement line into Air Force RDT&E to cover the $1.55 billion.
- The House panel rejected the proposed Navy offset and restored the $651 million for the E‑2D program, keeping carrier-based Hawkeye funding separate from the Wedgetail realignment.
- The action funds development only and does not authorize production; the committee ordered the Air Force secretary to brief House and Senate defense appropriations subcommittees on required quantities, funding across the future years defense program, and production schedules.
- Program uncertainty remains because the bill must clear the full appropriations process and be reconciled with the Senate, and the Air Force must answer questions about rising per‑aircraft costs and survivability that previously prompted a Pentagon move to cancel the program.