The Air Force plans to field a new podded, wide-area sensor system called “Gorgon Stare” in 2010 for unmanned aerial vehicles and manned intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance platforms. Flight International reported Jan. 28 that Gorgon Stare will initially be integrated onto the MQ-9 Reaper UAV to provide a wide-area stare to support tactical operations. It will be added later to other unmanned and manned aircraft. Flight said one advantage of Gorgon Stare is that, compared to wide-area surveillance sensors already in combat, it will not be a closed-loop system that requires dedicated logistics and training. Instead, the new sensor is designed to be platform-agnostic and operate with the distributed common ground system that is used by intelligence specialists to analyze imagery.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.