Northrop Grumman [NOC], the prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force’s E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), is looking to improve the ability of the ground-surveillance aircraft to detect “smaller objects,” a company official said Aug. 29.

Advances in computer technology are making it possible for Northrop Grumman to tap previously underused capability in the Joint STARS radar, said Bryan Lima, Northrop Grumman’s director of manned command, control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C2ISR) programs.

The E-8C Joint STARS. (Air Force photo)
The E-8C Joint STARS. (Air Force photo)

The radar’s limitations “were in the processing equipment of the radar data coming out of the sensor,” Lima said at a Northrop Grumman media briefing at the National Press Club. “As those limitations have gone away with new, modern computing technologies, we’ve now been able to really leverage the true benefit of the actual sensor itself in a lot of ways.”

While Lima declined to disclose the specific improvement that Northrop Grumman is pursuing, he noted that Joint STARS can already spot enemy fighters who have dismounted from their vehicles.

“We’ve got a plan to replace or upgrade the existing central computers,” he said. “We’ve also been asked by our customer to add new capability for radar target detection on smaller objects so we can continue to refine the ability of that radar to [detect] increasing, emerging threats.”

The Air Force first deployed Joint STARS in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War. The aircraft has served in every major combat operation since then and has flown more than 130,000 combat hours since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Its powerful 27-foot-long surveillance radar is housed in a canoe under its forward fuselage.

The Air Force has 16 E-8Cs and will observe the 30th anniversary of the aircraft’s first flight in March 2018. The Air Force plans to fly JSTARS, a modified Boeing 707, until 2030 and is holding a competition for a replacement.

Northrop Grumman, one of three firms vying to provide the successor, is proposing the General Dynamics [GD] Gulfstream G550 business jet. Boeing [BA] is offering a 737 airliner and Lockheed Martin [LMT] is proposing a Bombardier Global 6000 business jet. The Air Force plans to award a contract by March 2018.