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USAF funds JSTARS engine and radar system retrofitting(Flight International Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Long-anticipated re-engining of the US Air Force's Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft has been launched with formal selection of the Pratt & Whitney/Seven Q Seven team to supply the JT8D-219 turbofan. Goodrich has been selected to supply nacelle components. Northrop expects a contract soon to begin engineering, with an initial $12.5 million in funding included in the 2006 budget.The schedule calls for the JSTARS testbed, T-3, to be retrofitted by January 2008, with the remaining 17 aircraft to be re-engined by fiscal year 2013. Converted from Boeing 707-300Cs, the E-8s are still powered by the 35-year-old P&W JT3Ds fitted when the airliners were originally delivered. The USAF says the JT8Ds are more fuel-efficient, will increase altitude and loiter capability and comply with international noise and emissions standards.Northrop is also to upgrade the JSTARS with a precision targeting capability, five years after the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) first demonstrated a low-cost way to attack moving targets, using the E-8's radar to provide targeting updates via datalink to GPS-guided weapons in flight. The ability of the E-8 to geo-locate and track a moving vehicle using its surveillance radar, send target co-ordinates to the launch aircraft and update the seekerless weapon in flight to achieve a precision attack was demonstrated in 2002-3, during DARPA's Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement programme.The $56.2 million Enhanced Land/Maritime Mode upgrade includes a sensor update adding swath and enhanced synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) modes that provide higher-resolution imaging than the E-8's basic wide-area SAR capability. All 18 of the E-8s are to be upgraded within 18-20 months, starting with T-3, says Northrop.Boeing says existing Joint Direct Attack Munition bomb guidance tailkits will be modified with a weapon datalink to allow the GPS target co-ordinates to be updated in flight via radio link from the JSTARS. USAF budget documents indicate that the upgraded weapons will be fielded beginning in 2008. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - UK. All Rights Reserved. |