Gene Fraser, Northrop Grumman’s VP for Long Range Strike tells attendees today at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando that the company has upgraded four USAF B-2 bombers with advanced high frequency material as part of the second phase of a fleet-wide modernization program. Fraser said the new materials give the stealthy aircraft greater reliability, since AHFM reduces maintenance hours from a standard 80 to as few as four. The new materials coating replaces some of the most labor-intensive low observable processes with more efficient ones.
Space Systems Command has awarded a massive $2.29 billion contract to SpaceX for the “backbone” of its new Space Data Network, a constellation of satellites in low-Earth orbit that will provide connectivity for the entire joint force.