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Air Force Cancels $7B JSTARS Program
[Yahoo] The Air Force is canceling the planned refresh of its Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) airborne command and surveillance aircraft, a $7 billion blow for program competitors Boeing (NYSE: BA), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC).Funding for the JSTARS recapitalization was not included in the 2019 Pentagon budget request, with the Air Force expected to instead try to develop a program that would link together sensors from a number of sources to complete the same tasks. The original JSTARS program was first deployed in the early 1980s, designed to use airpower to detect and track multiple enemy targets and help coordinate attacks against targets. The Air Force in December 2016 launched a request for proposal for the engineering, manufacturing, and development of a fleet of 17 new aircraft with an estimated price tag of at least $6.9 billion. However, critics have argued that the platform, based on relatively slow-moving planes, was outdated because those planes represent easy targets in a combat theater. Advances in sensor and radar technologies also helped contribute to the downfall of JSTARS. New, smarter, and smaller equipment can increasingly be placed on a variety of air, space, sea, and land systems and coordinate in real time, diminishing the need for a flying hub. Posted by: Skidmark 2018-02-26 |
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