The technical people out at Aeronautical Systems Center are reporting the emergence of a new advanced display core processor for the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter. They say the new system will vastly improve its lethality and effectiveness. The Air Force will go operational with the first 15 uprated F-15Es in late 2006, with the remaining fighters getting the system by 2011. According to ASC, the processor will replace and integrate the functions of the fighter’s late 1980s technology, joining the multi-purpose display processor and the high speed integrated circuit central computer. With this new processor, the F-15E can employ the Small Diameter Bomb and other advanced weapons and detect, identify, and engage simultaneous multiple targets. Even if the Air Force gets all 381 F/A-22s that it seeks (and that is not likely), USAF will still need to keep a substantial number of F-15Es in active service for a long time to come.
The crash of a T-38 trainer jet this May—which caused a weekslong pause in flights across the fleet—was caused by an improperly installed pin for one of the jet’s horizontal stabilizers, according to a new accident report released Oct. 30. When the pin disengaged midflight, it created the slightest amount…