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The US Air Force (USAF) has downselected Northrop Grumman as the sole contractor to complete final project efforts to provide the electronic warfare (EW) suite for the service's Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon fleet. Northrop Grumman sp...
US lawmakers strengthen JSTARS aircraft retirement requirements 06 January 2021 by Pat Host US lawmakers have made it more difficult for the US Air Force (USAF) to retire its Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft. The fiscal year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) eliminates a previous provision that required the USAF to first declare initial operational capability (IOC) for Increment 2 of the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) internet-of-things (IoT) combat concept before retiring JSTARS aircraft. IOC is a point in time ...
Formula 1 vehicle racing digital engineering practices inspire US Air Force's Roper by Pat Host The US Air Force’s (USAF’s) acquisition executive is drawing inspiration from a Formula 1 racing team’s digital engineering practices as he tries to apply these concepts to the service’s next-generation aircraft. Will Roper, USAF assistant secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics (AT&L), said on 18 December that Formula 1 teams perform digital engineering across a racing season from their first conversation. These racing teams, he said, deal with 85% parts obsolescence year to y...
Boeing, US Navy fly MQ-25A test asset in aerial refuelling configuration for the first time by Pat Host Boeing and the US Navy (USN) flew the MQ-25A Stingray unmanned refuelling and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) T1 test asset in its aerial refuelling configuration for the first time on 9 December, according to a company statement. Cobham Mission Systems’ underwing-mounted refuelling buddy store flew on the MQ-25A T1 test asset, according to Cobham. A buddy store is an external pod, located on an aircraft hard point such as an ejector rack. It contains the equipment fo...
Bell tunes new V-280 software to enhance aircraft handling qualities 18 December 2020 by Pat Host Bell is tuning a new set of software for its V-280 Valor tiltrotor that gives the aircraft improved handling qualities, according to a company official. Ryan Ehinger, V-280 vice-president and programme director, told Janes on 15 December that this software added additional capabilities that would reduce pilot workload. This includes position hold and attitude hold, he said. Bell is tuning a new set of software for its V-280 that will improve the aircraft’s handling qualities. This software adds...