PERTH, Australia, April 1 -- The E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft will be deployed by Royal Australian Air Force in the search for missing Malaysian MH370 jet, a defence official said here Tuesday. "They are very capable aircraft which can assist us in deconflicting air space in the search area, that will be in addition to the force out there," former defence chief Angus Houston, who led the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC),told the media.

The E-7A Wedgetails can control the tactical battle space, providing direction for fighter aircraft, surface combatants and land based elements, as well as supporting aircraft,tankers and intelligence platforms.

Ten aircraft and nine ships will be assisting in Tuesday's search in an area about 120,000 square kilometers west of Perth with a civil jet providing a communications relay, according to Houston.

The Ocean Shield, an Australian war ship equipped with a black box detector and an unmanned underwater drone, left Perth on Monday evening to try to locate MH370's black boxes and the wreckage.

The Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) was established Monday to work at international, national and state level in relation to the search and recovery operation. "We will work with 14 countries that have a stake in this circumstance, coordinate with national commonwealth agencies as well as West Australian government," said Houston.

Prime Minister Tony Abbot pledged Monday that Australia would shoulder the cost of running the 20-staff coordination center as it's an act of international citizenship on Australia's part.

Speaking from his own experience, the former defense chief admitted that the current search and recovery operation is probably the most challenging one he has ever seen because the last known position of the aircraft is a very long way from where it vanished.

Ships and planes have concentrated their efforts in the South China Sea in the first week of the hunt. They then scoured waters 2,500 kilometers southwest of Perth for more than a week where satellite images have been possible debris of flight MH370.

The target area was again shifted about 1,100 km to the northeast by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) last Friday on what was said to be a credible new lead. "It's very complex and demanding that we don't have hard information like we normally have," Houston said.

He added the pressing task ahead is to find the wreckage of the aircraft then "we will employ high technology to do the underwater part of the search."

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is due to arrive in Perth, West Australia on Wednesday. He will visit the Pearce Air Base on Thursday to thank all involved in the multinational effort to find the remains of the plane.