Northrop Grumman officials say the company has completed its upgrade of the B-2’s weapons capability—allowing the stealth bomber to deliver five times its previous load of GPS-guided weapons. The company delivered the 54th “smart” bomb rack assembly earlier this month to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo. A smart rack-equipped B-2 can deliver 80 500-pound guided bombs.
It'll take up to 18 months for Lockheed Martin to deliver the 100 or so F-35s that went directly from production line to storage, awaiting the completion of Tech Refresh 3 testing. Customers haven't complained about the order in which the backlog is being delivered.