Northrop Grumman has received a contract for $56 million to add a new mobile target precision tracking and engagement capability to the Air Force’s E-8 Joint STARS fleets of ground radar aircraft. The Enhanced Land/Maritime Mode system will “improve overall battlefield response and tactical decision-making,” says Dave Nagy, Northrop’s VP for intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance programs.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…