The Air Force anticipates green-lighting in September final low-rate initial production (LRIP) for the first of three increments of a new computer upgrade system for the B-2 stealth bomber, according to a service spokesman.

Air Force spokesman Bill Hancock said Thursday in an email LRIP approval for prime contractor Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] B-2 Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Satellite Communications program Increment 1 upgrade is expected next month. Hancock said initial LRIP approval was delayed pending contract negotiations, which he said have since completed.

Ron Naylor, Northrop Grumman’s director for the B-2 program at Tinker AFB, Okla., told Defense Daily in April Increment 1 was ready to enter LRIP(Defense Daily, April 5).

Hancock said Increment 1’s final operational test report is in development and will support a December full rate production decision. Hancock added Increment 1 completed its final operational test flight July 27.

Hancock said the EHF Increment 1 program will provide the B-2 upgraded flight management computer processors, increased data storage, re-hosted flight management operational flight program (FMOFP) and a high-bandwidth data bus. Northrop Grumman spokesman Brooks McKinney told Defense Daily in a Aug. 15 email Increment 1 will provide the high-speed data handling environment required to handle EHF communications onboard the B-2.

Hancock added the Increment 1 Integrated Processor Unit (IPU) and Disk Drive Unit (DDU) architectures establish a high-speed fiber optic network as well as maintain connectivity to legacy interfaces.

“Increment 1 provides a processing growth path for future B-2 upgrades,” Hancock said.

Naylor told Defense Daily in July that Northrop Grumman had received its Milestone C approval for Increment 1.

EHF Increment 2 involves installation of a new communications terminal and the advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna. The Air Force last year awarded Northrop Grumman a $372 million contract to begin designing the AESA antenna system (Defense Daily, May 11, 2011).

Increment 3 was to integrate the B-2 into the Defense Department’s Global Information Grid (GIG), but McKinney said the Air Force has made changes to how, and when, it expects the program to proceed in terms of funding and technologies used.