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.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.