A Hanscom AFB team recently returned an E-767 Airborne Early Warning and Control System, or AWACS, jet to Japan following completion of a major upgrade. A team in the International AWACS Division of the Digital Directorate, headquartered here, provided the Japan Air Self-Defense Force with a mission computing upgrade, or MCU, to one of its AWACS jets. The team also delivered supporting ground systems to several Japanese air bases for mission planning and training. The MCU is similar to a U.S. Air Force E-3 AWACS upgrade. It will provide the JASDF with improved battlespace command and control, real-time information sharing among the services, decreased target identification time, and increased lethality
Col. Riley Pyles, deputy director of the Digital Directorate says,”That the JASDF has been intensely focused on getting this first E-767 MCU aircraft back into operations because of frequent incursions by Chinese and Russian aircraft and unmanned systems into Japanese airspace. Japan is a critical partner of the United States in the Indo-Pacific Command theater and the E-767 is the premier airborne battle management command and control node for the JASDF. If hostilities break out, we’ll want it flying just as much as they do.”
John Fisher, acting program manager of Mission Computing Upgrade program in the Digital Directorate’s Japan AWACS branch says, “This was the first time we’ve ever delivered this capability and there were so many positive lessons learned. The goal of this mission is to increase Japan’s national security, and it took a big team effort from all of the partners to make that happen.”
The JASDF has operated an AWACS program since 1998. Previously, the jets were updated with the Radar System Improvement Program and the Mission Navigation System Upgrade through an Air Force contract with Boeing in 2006. MCU installation began in August 2019. Successful flight testing and demonstrations at Edwards Air Force Base, California; Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington; and over the Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast were completed in 2022. The total value of the upgrade is $870 million. This team of Air Force Life Cycle Management Center personnel, Boeing, and the JASDF really came together to make this delivery happen, Japan E-767 Programs Branch. The team is currently performing MCU updates on additional JASDF E-767 aircraft.
The Boeing E-767 is an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft that was designed in response to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) requirements. It is essentially the Boeing E-3 Sentry’s surveillance radar and air control system installed on a Boeing 767-200. The base airframe for E-767 is that of a 767-200ER, Boeing designation 767-27C. (The “7C” designation is the Boeing customer code for the JASDF). The 767 airframe offers about 50 percent more floor space and nearly twice the volume of the 707 on which the E-3 is based. The mission electronics equipment are installed in forward cabin to balance the weight with the rotodome mounted above the aft fuselage. The aft cabin contains the crew’s rest area, galley, and lavatory.
