Northrop Grumman announced Tuesday that it has received a $223.6 million contract from the Air Force for sets of new engines for two E-8C Joint STARS ground-surveillance aircraft. Each set contains four Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engines, plus the associated pylon assemblies and connectors. Deliveries are expected to start in 2011, pending final military certification of these new engines on the Joint STARS testbed aircraft, the company said. These are the first two operational E-8Cs to get the new engines, which will offer greater reliability and fuel efficiency and allow the aircraft to operate from shorter runways. This all translates into more time on station for these aircraft, which have been essential in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.