The Strike Eagles of the 4th Fighter Wing are about to get better eyes and ears. Airmen at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., and Boeing employees earlier this fall began work on the first F-15E at the base to receive the new APG-82 active electronically scanned array radar, an upgrade from its old APG-70 mechanically scanned radar. The work, stemming from a June 2016 contract worth about $27.5 million, is expected to take seven to nine years, with all 92 jets at the base receiving the upgrade. “This radar update is going to drastically improve the aircraft’s air-to-air and air-to-ground radar making it significantly more capable,” Boeing’s F-15E site lead Jonathan Pierce said in a Seymour Johnson news release. The new radar provides “near simultaneous interleaving of air-to-air and air-to-ground functions,” along with better combat identification, longer air-to-air target detection and tracking, higher resolution air-to-ground radar mapping, and it improves ground moving target track capability. The new radars are in other aircraft such as F-22s and F-35s, and the Air National Guard is working to outfit some of its F-16s with them.
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.