The Air Force’s B-2 radar modernization initiative on March 15 reached an important milestone known as “required assets available.” This means that enough of the new radar sets on are now on hand so that the service may declare the new radar capability is initially operable once they are installed and pilots and maintainers are trained and enough spare parts are in place. David Van Buren, USAF’s acting acquisition executive, and Lt. Gen. Phillip Breedlove, operations, planning, and requirements guru on the Air Staff, made this announcement Wednesday to the House Armed Services airland panel. Northrop Grumman leads the industry team, including Raytheon, that is supplying the active electronically scanned array antennas and new radar avionics for the upgrade. According to Van Buren and Breedlove, the new radar equipment is expected to be fully operational on all 20 B-2s in Fiscal 2013. (Van Buren-Breedlove prepared remarks)
House and Senate lawmakers say they’re hopeful Congress will pass a defense appropriations bill in the coming weeks to avoid a repeat of last fall’s government shutdown, with only having a handful of working days remaining before the Jan. 30 deadline. Yet legislations still have to release a compromise version of defense spending legislation, which will have to…
