The U.S. Air Force has awarded Raytheon Technologies [RTX] a $183 million contract for sensors for the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2B (ASARS-2B) for the Lockheed Martin U-2S Dragon Lady reconnaissance plane, DoD said on Sept. 9.
“Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be complete by Aug. 16, 2027,” per the DoD contracts announcement.
ASARS-2B is to double the range of the Raytheon ASARS-2A radar, carried in the nose of some U-2s.
While the Air Force has said it wants to divest its U-2s by 2026, the Air Force has embarked on efforts to ensure continued relevance for the service’s fleet of 31 U-2s through the 2030s. Such efforts include the ASARS-2B upgrade and the Global High-altitude Open-system Sensor Technology (GHOST) upgrade for signals intelligence.
The ASARS-2B program “replaces the front end components” of the ASARS-2A “to alleviate reduction in current ASARS-2A capability starting in FY ’21 [fiscal 2021] due to significant diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS) issues,” the Air Force has said.
The Air Force has said that it expects ASARS-2B to reach initial operational capability in fiscal 2024.
Last October, the Air Force awarded a BAE Systems/Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) team a contract for GHOST, which is to replace the Northrop Grumman [NOC] Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) on the U-2 (Defense Daily, Oct. 19, 2021). Earlier that month, the Air Force said it had also awarded Northrop Grumman a contract for GHOST.