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 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.