Northrop Grumman said Nov. 18 it has successfully conducted a demonstration flight, as scheduled, of its new Scalable Agile Beam Radar sensor, which the company is developing at its own expense for the current F-16 fleet, and officials say it’s adaptable to other platforms. Northrop expects to fly SABR on an F-16 in 2009. • The Northrop Grumman-led team, that includes Raytheon and Alliant Techsystems, fired the first-stage rocket motor for the Missile Defense Agency’s Kinetic Energy Interceptor, in the fourth of five planned static fire tests that left officials “very confident” the first stage will “perform as designed” in the actual flight test in 2009, said Anthony Spehar, Northrop’s KEI program manager; his counterpart at Raytheon, Chuck Ross, said using a “test-like-you-fly methodology” is keeping the program “on track.” • A group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has filed a lawsuit against officials at Tyndall AFB, Fla., charging they have let environmental violations slide and asking for a copy of an Air Force Office of Special Investigation report, according to a Nov. 20 report by WMBB News.
Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Defense Department needs to upgrade its electronic warfare capability and its EW training ranges; just as his predecessor said at his own confirmation hearing.