New information management tools developed by Boeing researchers and the Air Force Research Lab have demonstrated in recent tests that they can dramatically improve the ability of aircraft to acquire, sort and exchange real-time mission data with each other and ground-based command units, according to Boeing officials. Boeing’s Phantom Works engineers and AFRL used the F-15E1 advanced technology demonstrator to test the intelligent software agents, which showed they could autonomously infer and execute actions to access, evaluate, and integrate desired data—allowing aircraft to fully exchange information in real-time with the Global Information Grid.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.