Northrop Grumman’s communications manager, Jim Stratford, told the Daily Report that the Air Force submitted a report to Pentagon acquisition guru Ken Krieg’s office on April 16 recommending continued “low-level support” for the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program, specifically the “larger Wide Area Surveillance radar until a platform/funding decision is made.” According to USAF spokesperson Maj. Morshe Araujo in a written response Friday to Daily Report questions, OSD has not made a final decision about the radar. However, she stated that the MP-RTIP development had been ended along with cancellation of the E-10 platform owing to “fiscal pressures during this budget cycle.” Senior Air Force officials told lawmakers late last month that the Air Force had pushed MP-RTIP development as far as 2007 funding would permit. Araujo confirmed that USAF does indeed want to pursue the radar and is working with OSD to maintain it. “The Air Force is looking at a number of options in which we could continue to develop this capability at an affordable cost,” she wrote. USAF currently is pursuing a reduced version of the radar for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle and expects to field it beginning in 2011.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.