Boeing has selected Raytheon’s active electronically scanned array radar to upgrade USAF’s F-15E Strike Eagles. The service already is upgrading F-15C models with Raytheon’s AESA radar. A company release states that the E model program would start in 2008 and “run parallel” with the C model upgrade to active duty and Air National Guard fighters. According to Jon Jones, president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, the AESA upgrade would extend operational capability for the E model through 2035. He said, “We’re confident this revolutionary radar will perform well beyond expectations.”
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…