The first F-15E fully equipped with the Strike Eagle Radar Modernization Program is now flying at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. It was the first of 47 aircraft 366th Fighter Wing Strike Eagles slated for the RMP upgrade by 2017, officials announced July 17. The RMP system provides new capabilities for the Strike Eagle, said Capt. Matthew Riley, a pilot with the 389th FS, who flew the inaugural mission in the RMP-equipped F-15E in June. The new radar system is very precise, requires less maintenance, and can designate air-to-air and air-to-ground targets at the same time, allowing pilots and weapons systems officers to track air and ground targets simultaneously, Riley said. The RMP also features enhanced air-to-air and air-to-ground combat identification capabilities, longer air-to-air targeting tools, longer range, and higher resolution air-to-ground radar mapping, as well as improved ground moving target tracking abilities. The RMP replaces the F-15Es two-decade-old APG-70 radar with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) system, the APG-82(V)1. Over the next several years, F-15Es from the 389th FS and 391st FS will be upgraded with the new radar, which takes between two to three months to install.
Sierra Nevada Corp. has acquired five ex-Korean Air 747-8 jumbo jets on which it will host the Survivable Airborne Operations Center. The jets will be transferred next year and will serve as the platforms for the SAOC, the $13 billion contract for which SNC won last month. The jets were…