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According to some sources, the order of the Navy's new airborne airborne planes could come in more quickly than expected.
These aircraft, E-2D Advanced Hawkeye of the American Northrop Grumman, will replace the three current E-2C received in 1998, 1999 and 2004 by the French naval aeronautics and since deployed on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle by Flotilla 4F, based in Lann-Bihoué, near Lorient.
If the delivery of E-2Ds is still planned between 2027 and 2028,they could be ordered in the next few months. It seems that there is currently an opportunity to acquire these aircrafts at a more competitive price, the quoted figure will increase from 2020.
Even if the order for these three new aircraft was not planned on the 2019 budget, France has every interest to do so quickly if it wants to pay its new Hawkeye cheaper. Negotiations are under way and a decision must be made by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the three E-2Cs of the 4F fleet, which were in the Hawkeye 2000 standard (the third original and the first two after retrofit in 2006 and 2007), were modernized between 2017 and 2019 in order to fly until on the arrival of their successors.
Developed on the basis of the E-2C cell, with a new mission system and the latest high-performance sensors, such as the AN / APY-9 AESA radar, the new E-2D has started to come into service in the US Navy at the end of 2014 and has since seen its capabilities rise. This is particularly the case of the integration of a boom allowing refueling in flight and therefore a significant increase in the autonomy of this radar aircraft compared to its predecessor. An Advanced Hawkeye of the United States Navy thus made this year a flight of more than 8 hours.
Outside the United States (75 aircraft planned for 2021) and France (3 aircraft), Japan has also ordered 9 E-2Ds with first deliveries scheduled for this year.
https://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/vers-une-commande-prochaine-des-nouveaux-hawkeye-francais
