Northrop Grumman announced Wednesday that flight testing has commenced with new computing hardware and communications gear that will bolster the B-2 stealth bomber’s connectivity. A B-2 test aircraft stationed at Edwards AFB, Calif., has been flying with this equipment since Sept. 1, according to the company. This gear, which includes a new integrated processing unit, disk drive, and fiberoptic cables, is the first increment of the B-2’s extremely high frequency satellite communications upgrade. Northrop announced in March that it had begun installing this equipment on the aircraft. The EHF upgrade comprises three increments of varying complexity. When the upgrade is complete, the B-2 will be able to send and receive battlefield information by satellite more than 100 times faster than it can today, stated the company.
Questioned by lawmakers on the state of the Air Force's maintenance depots, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. "Jim" Slife said April 30 that the service is investing in IT and data infrastructure to better sustain new software-intensive platforms—while acknowledging that there is still work to be done to…