OWEGO, N.Y., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. firm Lockheed Martin has won a $23 million contract from Northrop Grumman to help upgrade the B-2 bomber SATCOM system.
"As part of the program’s system development and demonstration phase, Lockheed Martin will replace the B-2's current flight management computers with a new subsystem," the company said in a statement last week.
“The enhanced performance of our product will enable the B-2 aircraft to send and receive information at a much faster pace, supporting the needs of today’s war fighter,” said Dan Rice, director of products at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration-Owego.
Lockheed Martin said its subsystem "combines legacy B-2 avionics functions with additional processing capabilities to support the aircraft’s Extremely High Frequency SATCOM system. The EHF SATCOM provides the bomber’s aircrew with a beyond-line-of-sight, assured-connectivity capability that ensures the B-2 is compatible with current and future EHF communication satellite architectures."
"This SATCOM upgrade program will also allow the B-2 to connect easily to the U.S. Department of Defense's Global Information Grid, a worldwide network of information systems, processes and personnel involved in collecting, storing, managing and disseminating information on demand to war fighters, policymakers and military support personnel," the company said.
Lockheed Martin noted that it had "supported the B-2 program in various capacities for more than 20 years" and that it remained "the sole-source supplier of the aircraft's AN/APR-50 Defensive Management System. Lockheed Martin has also supplied the bomber with Single Board Computers and Graphics Display module used in the B-2 Center Instrument Display Set."
