Boeing announced Thursday that it has received an $84 million contract from the Air Force to perform additional software upgrades of the B-1B bomber’s avionics. The new deal authorizes the company to commence work on sustainment block 16. “This major block will enhance the aircraft’s color cockpit displays, data link, radar, and navigation,” said Mahesh Reddy, Boeing’s B-1 program director. Boeing introduces new avionic software once a year on the B-1. SB 14 is in flight test at Edwards AFB, Calif., with delivery scheduled in 2011. SB 15 will be delivered in 2012.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…