The Air Force on Friday awarded pre-engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contracts to Lockheed Martin [LMT], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Boeing [BA] for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) recapitalization program.

All three contracts are for helping assess maturity of subsystem technology, reduce weapon system integration risk and lower life cycle cost by virtue of design, according to a Defense Department statement. Work from all three contractors is expected to complete by July 31, 2016. The contracts were competitively awarded with four offers received.

An E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft. Photo: Air Force.
An E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft. Photo: Air Force.

Lockheed Martin, teaming with Raytheon [RTN], received a $11 million contract. Northrop Grumman, which is teaming with Gulfstream from General Dynamics [GD] and L-3 Communications [LLL], received $10 million. Boeing received a roughly $10 million deal.

Northrop Grumman, with Boeing, is the incumbent from the original JSTARS program. Boeing provided its 707 commercial airliner (Defense Daily, June 12).