Boeing officials told Flight International that Air Combat Command is slated in July to complete a long-term upgrade roadmap for the F-15E Strike Eagle. According to the FI report, ACC wants to include approval for avionics and supportability upgrades in its Fiscal 2012 budget submission. The Air Force already is adding a new Raytheon-built advanced electronically steered array radar to the Strike Eagle, which Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz praised last fall for its work in Southwest Asia operations. The service plans to keep it in action until around 2035.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has unveiled a new electronic warfare drone designed to fly with fighter jets into contested airspace, including alongside its fleet of F-35s. RAF says it plans to develop models that draw on the U.S. Air Force’s approach of mating unmanned systems with crewed platforms.