Northrop Grumman announced Tuesday that its industry team has completed the system development and demonstration phase of the program to modernize the radars on the Air Force’s B-2A stealth bombers. “The completion of SDD adds momentum and confidence to our work equipping the B-2 fleet with the most modern radar technology,” said Dave Mazur, Northrop’s B-2 program manager. SDD included installing the new Raytheon-supplied radar gear, including advanced electronically scanned array antennas, on the B-2 test aircraft and first group of operational B-2s as well as delivering the spare parts for them. The program is now in its full-rate production phase, with installation of the new gear on all 20 B-2s expected to be complete in 2012, according to Northrop.
The Air National Guardsman who was arrested last year for sharing hundreds of top secret and classified documents to online chatrooms was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on Nov. 12 after pleading guilty to several charges this March.