Page 5 – Defense Daily

USAF May Fund Integration of JMPS with MH-139 Flight Management System

The U.S. Air Force may fund the integration of its Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS) with the Honeywell [HON] Primus Epic Phase 7 Flight Management System carried on the Boeing [BA]/Leonardo MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopter, which is to replace the Bell [TXT] UH-1N Hueys in support of the ICBM missile fields and in contingency transport of government leaders in the Washington, D.C., area.

On Wednesday, the MH-139A program office in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance & Special Operations Forces directorate said that it is “conducting market research to identify possible sources capable of integrating the USG [U.S. government] owned Joint Mission Planning System with current on-board commercial flight system of the aircraft.”

“Any proposed solution must allow the Joint Mission Planning System and Honeywell Primus Epic Phase 7 Flight Management System to exchange data in order to allow the aircraft to accept, display, and map flight mission data,” the Wednesday Request for Information (RFI) said. “Technical support is expected during the initial implementation and testing of the system. Subject matter expert support is expected for an extended period of time after initial implementation and testing.”

The Air Force has said that it began moving all its aircraft to JMPS in 2008. JMPS started as a congressionally directed effort two decades ago.

The combined JMPS/Primus Epic Phase 7 system is to load a minimum of 40 flight plans with a maximum of 100 waypoints; a single flight route with a maximum of 100 waypoints; and a custom data base with a minimum of 750 waypoints, the RFI said. In addition, the system is to allow the automation of waypoint files and flight plans; provide geodetic coordinate entry for flight planning; load and download mission data from the flight management system; and use Air Force weather data and notice to airmen.

In January, the MH-139A began initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) at Malmstrom AFB, Mont. (Defense Daily, Feb. 18).

Last year’s Pentagon directorate of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E) annual report, completed before the start of MH-139A IOT&E, said that the MH-139A program “needs to address several challenges for the MH-139A to be operationally suitable. DOT&E noted concerns, including that engine ingestion of dust and debris may cause long-term maintenance issues if not resolved.”

“This is in addition to previously reported concerns about engine maintenance caused by expansion of the aircraft flight envelope and higher power requirements,” the study said. “Moreover, carbon buildup has been identified in several parts of the aircraft’s engine including the engine fuel nozzles.”

The 908th Flying Training Unit at Maxwell AFB, Ala., is to become the formal training unit for the MH-139A.

Last April, an Air Force fiscal 2025 budget hearing before the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel revealed that the MH-139A, like the next generation Northrop Grumman [NOC] LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM, had breached Nunn-McCurdy defense program cost provisions, first enacted in the fiscal 1983 defense authorization act (Defense Daily, May 1). Law requires DoD to notify Congress of unit cost overruns of 15 percent and above in major defense acquisition programs.

The Grey Wolf’s Nunn-McCurdy breach followed a decision in the Air Force’s fiscal 2025 budget to reduce the planned buy of 80 MH-139As–six development and 74 production aircraft–to 42.

DIU Seeks Demonstrable Long-Range High-Capacity Payload UUVs

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on Thursday launched a new Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) initiative to find more uncrewed vessels that can demonstrably hold high-capacity payloads for extended ranges for the Navy.

This project, dubbed the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP), is dedicated to former U.S. Pacific Fleet Director of Warfare Systems Richard Camp.

Defense Innovation Unit logo

DIU argued CAMP is necessary because to maximize operational effectiveness, the military requires more capabilities to send large payloads across long distances but “current UUV capabilities present limitations in range and payload capacity, hindering the effective deployment of critical resources in certain operational scenarios.”

The solicitation specifically seeks commercially available and demonstration-ready uncrewed systems that address these kinds of limitations to find a scalable and cost-effective solution for the long-range payload deployment mission.

DIU said it desires CAMP candidates should cover mission sets like emplacement of various sized loads; bathymetric surveys and mapping; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; communications across the air/water interface; and ability to operate in a GPS-denied environment.

The candidate CAMP platforms should also include at least some of several capabilities: range over 1,000 nautical miles; capable of performing deeper than 200 meters underwater; have a modular payload capacity with the ability to drop payloads to the seafloor; autonomous navigation, guidance, obstacle/collision avoidance with remote operation; capability for RF communications and capability or demonstration of pathway for undersea communications; modularity for switching payloads and mission sets; and hardware and software architecture with open interfaces that can integrate with third party payloads.

DIU wants the seafloor payload sizes to be at least include five feet long and 19 inches diameter as well as 21 feet long and 21 inches in diameter.

Notably, DIU wants the candidates to be transportable, deployable and recoverable with commonly available commercial freight and transportation equipment or demonstrate a path to that – which would mean these systems would not have to be based only on Navy warships.

DIU said while it does not expect interested companies to be able to meet all specifications, it encouraged those with demonstrable capability applicable to at least one of the attributes to apply regardless. It also said that while they will accept partial solutions from vendors, they encourage those that cannot propose complete solutions to team up.

After this initial phase, DIU expects the CSO to move to a Phase 2, wherein the government plans to observe a live in-person and in-water demonstration of the solutions.

Phase 2 is expected to start about four weeks after the closing date of this initial area of interest solicitation.

Army Seeks Industry’s Info On Production-Ready ‘Purpose-Built Attritable Systems’

The Army is seeking industry’s information on potential offerings for “Purpose-Built Attritable Systems (PBAS),” detailing an interest in small, first person view (FPV) drones that are “production-ready.”

A new Sources Sought notice states the Army may invite industry for a follow-on PBAS demonstration to showcase solutions that are commercially available, reusable and that have “unretrievable components,” to include uncrewed aircraft platforms and payloads.

Red Cat’s Black Widow sUAS. Photo: Red Cat.

“FPV-enabled [small UAS] provide the maneuver force a low cost solution with increased maneuverability, precise lethal payload delivery and operator concealability,” the Army writes in the notice.

Potential PBAS solutions should be designed with baseline mission characteristics for “rapid reconfigurability and modular payload capabilities that allow for mission changes across target acquisition tasks, with the added flexibility to execute kinetic operations as needed,” according to the notice.

“The system’s mission characteristics include a field-level reconfigurable, modular payload capability to execute the primary mission of reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition, secondary mission of communications relay and [an] enhanced mission set of lethal payload delivery and electronic support,” according to the notice.

The Army notes that information collected in response to the new notice “may be used to fulfill future procurement requirements.”

Shaheen Seeks Info From DoD On Tariffs Impact, Potential For Rising Acquisition Costs

A senior member of the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committees has raised concerns that the Trump administration’s widespread tariffs policy will lead to a spike in defense acquisition costs and negatively impact the industrial base.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who is also the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday seeking details on how the Pentagon is factoring in the costs of Trump’s “trade war,” which she said is “harming DoD’s purchasing power, weakening supply chains and raising costs on small businesses.”

General Dynamics-NASSCO employee Dennis DuBard, the Start of Construction honoree, initiated the first cut of steel that will be used to construct the future USS Robert E. Simanek (ESB-7) Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary sea base ship on December 1, 2021. (Photo: General Dynamics)

“In the short term, the announced tariffs alone will increase costs for U.S. defense industrial supply chain companies. [Defense industrial base] companies and their suppliers may be forced to absorb those costs which could drive more companies and jobs out of the defense industrial supply chain, stifling innovation. In the long term, tariffs will drive up DoD’s contracting and procurement costs, limit DoD buying power and ultimately harm the warfighter and our military readiness,” Shaheen wrote.

The Trump administration is currently imposing a “blanket” 10 percent tariff on all imports, a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports and a 145 percent tariff on all imports from China. The White House also previously announced a slate of larger “reciprocal” tariffs, and then placed a 90-pause day on that policy for all countries except China.

Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition Brett Seidle told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month the steel and aluminum tariffs could increase shipbuilding costs, noting that “about half of our aluminum and a third of our steel in [2023] came from Canada” (Defense Daily, March 27).

Shaheen, in her letter to Hegseth, also raises concern about DoD’s ability to “secure its own supply chains and fully assess how much of its industrial base is foreign-sourced” amid the tariffs agenda.

“The average American aerospace company relies on roughly 200 first tier suppliers. The second and third tiers have more than 12,000 companies. With the globalization of supply chains, these suppliers and their goods come from a wide array of places,” Shaheen said.

Along with “pressing budgetary pressures” the Pentagon may face in the coming years, Shaheen adds that the added impact of tariffs “have the potential to balloon the budget far beyond [the Congressional Budget Office’s expected increases.”

Shaheen has asked Hegseth to respond with specific information on the expected tariffs impact, to include listing “critical imported supplies” that are now subject to new tariffs, the expected “monetary impact” on DoD contracts, how the Pentagon is factoring in increased costs into fixed-price contracts and how DoD’s purchasing power could be affected.

The letter also asked Hegseth to provide clarity on whether industry can use Chapter 98 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to purchase certain critical materials without the imposed duties.

“Providing clarity on this front would help businesses throughout the defense supply chain,” Shaheen said.

Shield AI Touts V-BAT Sorties In Ukraine

The V-BAT unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has conducted more than 130 sorties in Ukraine, including training and operations in contested environments in the country’s war against Russian invaders, drone manufacturer Shield AI said on Thursday.

Early this year, Shield AI said it had opened an office in Kyiv to train Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) on operating V-BAT (Defense Daily, Jan. 25). The company’s team includes engineers, mission operations personnel, and technical specialists. Shield yesterday said it has also hired Ukrainian military veterans to support its work in Ukraine and this month will bring them to Texas for advanced training.

Citing the USF, Shield AI said operating V-BAT without GPS or communications and provide precision targeting “has provided a decisive advantage over other UAVs in the region.”

V-BAT, a Group 3 UAS that takes off and lands vertically and also flies horizontally, in 2024 began conducting operations in Ukraine with Shield’s Hivemind autonomous pilot software, demonstrating success in challenging electronic warfare environments to find targets that Ukrainian forces could fire on (Defense Daily, Nov. 12, 2024).

“Shield AI’s operational presence and focus on real-world problems have allowed us to build systems that perform where it matters most,” James Lythgoe, the company’s Ukraine managing director and a former British Royals Marine, said in a statement. “V-BAT, powered by our Hivemind autonomy stack, remains the only long-endurance ISR and strike platform to penetrate both Ukrainian and Russian GPS and comms jammers.”

Space Force Outlines Elements Of Space Warfighting In First Framework

The Space Force on Thursday released its first-ever Space Warfighting framework, outlining the activities and considerations to fight in, and out of, space to achieve superiority in the domain.

The framework flows from the appreciation that the military space operations are foundational to joint force operations, enabling global communications, power projection, and long-range kill chains.

“Space superiority is not only a necessary precondition for Joint Force success but also something for which we must be prepared to fight,” the Space Force says in the foreword to the framework. “Gained and maintained, it unlocks superiority in other domains, fuels Coalition lethality, and fortifies troop survivability. It is therefore the basis from which the Joint Force projects power, deters aggression, and secures the homeland.”

Space control is the enabler of space superiority, the 22-page framework says. Space control consists of the activities to “contest and control the space domain,” namely counterspace operations, which includes offensive and defensive actions, it says.

There are three activities that make up offensive operations: orbital strike, space link interdiction, and terrestrial strike. Orbital strike refers to destroying, disrupting or degrading and adversary’s space platforms using kinetic or non-kinetic means.

Non-kinetic means, such as cyber or electromagnetic attacks, would be used to interdict space links. Terrestrial strikes, also carried out using kinetic or non-kinetic means, can be done by any of the military services and could entail attacking enemy launch sites, other terrestrial infrastructure such as command and control nodes and mission centers, and space systems.

Defensive actions are divided into active and passive space defenses. Active defense includes escort operations, which could be using space capabilities to protect friendly space assets.
Active space defense also includes counterattack against an adversary’s orbital, terrestrial, and space link systems, and suppression of adversary counterspace targeting by denying the “adversary’s ability to collect or disseminate weapons-quality targeting data during an orbital engagement,” the framework says.

Passive space defense consists of seven operations that comprise threat warning, military deception, hardening, dispersal, disaggregation, mobility, and redundancy. These operations are aimed at achieving specific space superiority effects such as rapid communication of “indications of enemy space or space-enabled attacks, or frequently moving space and related assets to reduce vulnerability and increase survivability.

“Space Warfighting offers the counterspace framework necessary to execute the tenets of Competitive Endurance, the USSF’s theory of success to achieve U.S. space superiority while safeguarding the safety, security, stability, and long-term sustainability of the space domain,” the framework says. “The ideas in Space Warfighting should shape Guardians’ planning and activities to avoid operational surprise, deny first-mover advantage, and undertake responsible counterspace campaigning.”

STRATCOM Looking Into Strategic Impacts of Golden Dome, Commander Says

U.S. Strategic Command is looking into potential impacts of President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense to the nation’s nuclear deterrence, the commander said in a fiscal 2026 Strategic Forces Posture hearing April 9.

“We’re looking at some of the things that came from the SDI [Strategic Defense Initiative] initiatives, some of the talking points, some of the op eds… just to kind of capture what that looks like, and we’re still in the middle of doing that,” Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Commander Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton said at the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee hearing.

The Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed the “Star Wars” initiative, was a proposed missile defense system that then-President Ronald Reagan announced in 1983. While the Star Wars initiative was never realized, it envisioned a space-based missile defense system most similar to Trump’s Golden Dome that he announced originally as the “Iron Dome for America” in a

January executive order.

“You spend all day thinking about maintaining nuclear deterrence and strategic stability around the world,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Strategic Forces subcommittee, said to Cotton. He then asked Cotton if he and STRATCOM were involved in thinking through potential impacts “a Golden Dome could have on the strategic stability that is increasingly precarious because of Russia and China’s novel delivery systems.”

Cotton, who will retire in the coming months, responded that “at this time, STRATCOM is actually looking” at some of those impacts.

The Golden Dome, which the executive order states is intended to defend against hypersonic, cruise and nuclear-armed ballistic missile threats and a “countervalue attack by nuclear adversaries,” has gotten a mixed response. In a March hearing with Cotton held by the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said his “concern” was that in building such a defense system, “our adversaries’ response to having a missile defense system could be to build more nuclear weapons. And, if one or two get through, that is too many.”

The Washington-based think tank the Arms Control Association (ACA), agreeing with Kelly, called the Golden Dome “misguided” with “enormous opportunity costs.”

“The fundamental problem with any plan for a national missile defense system against strategic nuclear attack is that cost-exchange ratios favor the offense and U.S. adversaries can always choose to build up or diversify their strategic forces to overwhelm a potential shield,” ACA said in a March 25 article. “The fantasy of a missile shield runs against a core rule of strategic competition: the enemy always gets a vote.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told sister publication The Exchange Monitor in early April that “these are the same arguments that have been made for decades and I reject that,” in response to arguments against the Dome.

“We need to protect the homeland from as many dangers as are out there,” Wicker said. “The concept of an Iron Dome for America is actually even more vital given the space capabilities of our adversaries are quickly developing.”

Leidos Pitches New Low-Cost Attritable UUV

Leidos [LDOS] last week pitched a new Sea Dart small, attritable low-cost uncrewed undersea vessel (UUV) as an alternative to more expensive systems during the annual 2025 Sea-Air-Space expo.

“Sea Dart is the next step in the progressive evolution of our UUV product line, introducing a new, low-cost commercial UUV to the market. It offers the flexibility to fully customize customer payloads while staying true to our core commitment to keeping production costs significantly lower than other models,” Dave Lewis, senior vice president of Sea Systems for Leidos, said in a statement.

The new one or two-person transportable UUV comes in two standard diameters: six and nine inches. The company noted it is capable of performing either environmental, scientific or research missions focused on low cost platforms or the Navy with a platform compatible with the Navy’s preferred underwater vehicle software architecture and new non-propogating UUV battery design. Leidos is also considering producing a 12.75-inch diameter variant.

The range will be user-selectable, dependent on payload, but the company is looking at about 19 hours range with maximum battery storage combined with low speed. If the client prefers a higher end motor to go over 12 knots, that lowers the endurance.

The company developed the Sea Dart with internal research and development funding.

One of the reasons Leidos is pushing the Sea Dart is to “change the conversation, and instead of continuing on a ramp of more exquisite capability in some of these vehicles, we wanted to move into a place that we allowed a UUV for the masses, if you will,” Jason Weed, Undersea Subject Matter Expert at Leidos’ Maritime Systems Division, told Defense Daily in an interview last week.

Weed added the company’s goal is for the vehicle to be attritable, but with user-selected payloads so it can act like a smart torpedo or aid in counter-mine, underwater survey, undersea infrastructure sensing and other missions for military or civilian clients.

He said Leidos is pricing out the Sea Dart to be in the “very, very low hundreds of thousands – I could say very comfortably about $200,000 for one of our units.”

The company billed this as 80 to 90 percent lower than similar small UUVs on the market with similar capabilities, making their strength being able to provide the Navy with large numbers in the near term.

“We can kind of get scale or bring other players in to the UUV field that otherwise couldn’t because the $2 million to $4 million price tag for some of these very exquisite vehicles,- we’re 10x at least on the savings between those exquisite vehicles where it has probably a lot of functionality that isn’t necessary for the specific use case that the customer is looking for,” Weed said.

He argued this translates into a $100 million order for small UUVs means at least over 200 Sea Darts with full payload integration compared to a notional competitors’ 50 UUVs that cost $1 million to $2 million each.

“That’s really what the differentiator is, is there are other folks out here in the market, but when you do a side by side comparison of what their capabilities are, they don’t match up and align for what we’re doing,” he added.

This comes amid several new entrants into the Navy UUV market as demand rises to produce new capabilities faster than traditional shipbuilding can deliver. During the expo, Anduril announced its new Copperhead family of UUVs that are meant to be launched from another unmanned vehicle, with a similar weaponized munition variant option (Defense Daily, April 7).

Weed said Leidos has integrated the capability to launch and recover Sea Dart from a submarine torpedo tube, but it can also be launched and recovered from the seafloor or surface ships

“The goal is to have an attritable vehicle. Obviously, we can recover it. We can build that functional functionality into the payloads. But also it’s limited use. It’s not designed to last 10 or 15 years, because that’s not the price point we’re at.”

He boasted that given the vehicle price point and design combined with its open software architecture, Leidos can replace obsolete components “on the fly” and continue to maintain it without a major complete redesign.

Weed said the company’s workflow analysis found they can produce about 180 to 200 UUVs per year with one work cell working one shift per work day. However, Weed emphasized they can flex to add work cells or more shifts if demand signal increases.

Medium displacement unmanned surface vessel Sea Hunter sails in formation during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022 on July 28. (Photo: U.S. Navy by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Aleksandr Freutel)

“ I would say very comfortably that we can probably build 200 units a year, as soon as the order would come in, we could move to that level. And we’re working very closely with our subcontractors to get those lead components that we would need as well,” Weed said.

He also confirmed Sea Dart is partially an outgrowth of DoD’s Replicator initiative but also his own kind of experience previously working at Navy Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Squadron One, now UUV Group One, where he saw no similar low-cost options that can scale into the hundreds for constant deployment in the Navy’s inventory.

“There wasn’t anything out there at a price point that was going to make sense for the Navy. And so through internal [research and development funding], they developed this vehicle, the Sea Dart.

Weed said Leidos has already integrated the payload of one customer they would not disclose, with an in-water test in recent weeks. He said within a month of getting the payload, Leidos tested and integrated it with the Sea Dart.

He confirmed the company has had active government interest in Sea Dart and international interest, referencing the expo opportunity to showcase.

Other unmanned offerings from Leidos include its Sea Archer small unmanned surface vessel (USV) and for Navy-tested medium USVs, the Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Ranger and Mariner.

Malave Departs Lockheed Martin; Evan Scott Named New CFO

Lockheed Martin [LMT] on Thursday announced the abrupt departure of Jay Malave as the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) and named Evan Scott as his successor, effective immediately.

Malave, who joined the company as CFO in January 2022, told the company he was “going to pursue other opportunities,” Lockheed Martin said.

There was no “financial or accounting issue or any disagreement with the company on any matter related to the company’s operations, policies or practices,” a Lockheed Martin spokesperson told Defense Daily

. “This was a personal decision.”

Lockheed Martin’s press release announcing the CFO change did not thank Malave for his service nor wish him well in his future pursuits.

The company next Tuesday will report first quarter 2025 financial results and said it will reaffirm its prior guidance for the year, “exclusive of the evolving impacts of tariffs and the recent Next Generation Air Dominance announcement.”

The Air Force in March awarded Boeing [BA] the engineering and development contract for the manned NGAD F-47 fighter (Defense Daily, March 21).

Scott, 48, a 26-year veteran of Lockheed Martin, most recently served as CFO of the Missiles and Fire Control operating segment since Jan. 1, 2024, and before that as treasurer from June 2022 through December 2023, and previously as vice president of finance and business operations of the Space segment from March 2019 to August 2021.

“Over his 26 years at Lockheed Martin, Evan has earned the utmost respect as an experienced finance and operations leader, with deep understanding of our business and mission,” Jim Taiclet, chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement.

Malave joined Lockheed Martin from L3Harris Technologies [LHX] where he also was CFO for nearly three years. Before L3Harris, for years he served in various financial positions at the former United Technologies Corp. and its operating segments.

USAF Considers FY 2027 EMD for Wedgetail Upgrades, Including MESA Replacement

The U.S. Air Force is considering starting engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) in fiscal 2027 for upgrades to the Boeing [BA] E-7A Wedgetail, including a replacement of the Northrop Grumman [NOC] Multi-Role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar.

The Air Force “is seeking to initiate an EMD program in the FY27 time frame to develop and integrate an advanced sensor and potentially other capabilities onto the baseline E-7 platform, or an equivalent AMTI/BMC2 [airborne moving target indication/battle management command and control] platform,” according to an Apr. 15 Request for Information (RFI). “Following the EMD phase, the Government is considering retrofitting USAF E-7A aircraft with EMD modifications, producing new E-7 aircraft, or a combination of retrofit and new aircraft.”

Northrop Grumman said recently that the company, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and Boeing flight tested at RAAF Williamstown improved combat identification for MESA.

The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies has advised the Air Force to add more than $5 billion in its fiscal 2026 budget request to buy 26 Wedgetails to replace the 16 E-3 AWACS planes “in hospice care” (Defense Daily, March 20).

“The existing E-7A Rapid Prototyping (RP) program is intended as a speed-to-ramp effort to resolve urgent capability gaps existing within the E-3 Sentry fleet,” according to the Apr. 15 RFI. “The government intentionally did not include emerging new capabilities in the RP effort. The government is interested in identifying industry partners to provide cutting-edge capabilities and technologies, potentially to include an advanced sensor (MESA replacement), advanced infrared sensor, Electronic Support Measures replacement, Electronic Warfare Self-Protection replacement, Tactical Targeting Network Technology, Link 16 High Power Amplifier (HPA), Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System connectivity, Combat Identification, next-generation Tactical Data Link, advanced missile data link capabilities, and other next-generation AMTI, BMC2, Alternative Position, Navigation, and Timing, and/or communications technologies.”

The Air Force Sustainment Center at Tinker AFB, Okla., is examining reduction of AWACS support costs through the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources Replacement of Avionics for Global Operations and Navigation (DRAGON) effort (Defense Daily, March 31).

DRAGON led to a reduction in the AWACS flight deck from four to three crew members “by eliminating the navigator position and incorporating a modern Flight Management System Suite with robust architecture,” including a modern flight management computer and large multi-function displays for flight and engine instruments, the Air Force has said.