The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio last week awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] an up to $7 billion, five-year contract for B-2 sustainment and modernization, as the service plans avionics and weapons upgrades for its 20 stealth bombers.
“This contract provides for B-2 enhancements, sustainment, logistics elements including sustaining engineering, software maintenance, and support equipment,” DoD said in a May 2 contract announcement. “Also included is programmed depot maintenance of the fleet and other interim contractor support. Work will be performed at Palmdale, Calif.; with performance at other locations, namely Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.; Tinker AFB, Okla.; Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio; Edwards AFB, Calif.; and Hill AFB, Utah, and is expected to be completed by May 3, 2029.”
Northrop Grumman has been the prime contractor on the B-2 Display Modernization (BDM) program to help pilots plan missions, and RTX‘s [RTX] Collins Aerospace has worked on designing new B-2 displays for BDM–a successor to the B-2 Defensive Management System Modernization (DMS-M) program, begun with $250 million in fiscal 2013 (Defense Daily, Nov. 2, 2020). DMS-M was to include a digital electronic support measures (ESM) subsystem, new ESM antennas, and modern display processing units to improve threat radar detection, identification, and avoidance capabilities.
DMS-M was expected to cost about $2.8 billion, and, as a result of delays in the program, the Air Force restructured it to include just the cockpit upgrade in the service’s fiscal 2021 budget request after spending about $1.9 billion on DMS-M.
The Air Force has said that the B-2’s old display subsystem has lacked “the processing power to provide necessary situational awareness to air crews in the projected dense threat environments of the future” and that “the legacy multi-function display units (MDUs) are not supportable due to obsolescence and repair issues.”
BDM “is a modernization of the B-2 multi-purpose display units (MDUs) and includes removal of the DMS-M modification from the B-2 fleet test aircraft and lab environment,” the Air Force has said.
Air Force research and development funding is to go to B-2 Low Observable Signature and Supportability Modifications (LOSSM) for LO material/diagnostic upgrades, including a classified ASR-11 effort and the Next Gen Zonal Radar–a hand-held device for B-2 mechanics to permit improved analysis of the aircraft’s LO materials, especially a “low frequency inspection ability that has reemerged as a critical need,” the Air Force said.
Other B-2 avionics modernization efforts include integration of the Mode 5, NATO standard Identification Friend or Foe transponder and two advanced communications thrusts, one being the Adaptable Communications Suite (ACS) Increment 4.0 for secure beyond line-of-sight, simultaneous voice and data satellite communications (SATCOM) to replace the B-2’s radios and move B-2 SATCOM to the “Mobile User Objective System [MUOS] due to the sunset of the current Ultra High Frequency Follow-On [UFO] satellite constellation.”
Lockheed Martin [LMT] developed MUOS for the Navy for narrowband communications, and Boeing [BA] built the 11 UFO satellites launched between 1993 and 2003.
The other B-2 advanced communications effort is the open architecture-based B-2 Battlespace Collaborative Combat Communications (B2C3).
“B2C3 will implement Airborne Integrated Terminal Group (AITG) which provides Line-of-Sight Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) anti-jam, encrypted, and unencrypted voice communications,” the Air Force said. “AITG Replacement will include the replacement of the AN/ARC-234 radio which will reach end-of-life effective 01 Oct 2026. AITG replacement will also implement the SATURN Waveform for anti-jam voice communications; this is a transition from the HAVE QUICK Waveform which will be retired effective 01 Oct 2024.”
BAE Systems makes the ARC-234 radio.