The U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center’s branch office at Robins AFB, Ga., is considering a possible contract to provide engineering support for Initial Operational Capability of the Operational Flight Programs of the Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35 fighter’s AN/APG-81 active electronically scanned array radar and AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System (DAS)–both by Northrop Grumman [NOC].
The Aug. 10 Request for Information‘s Performance Work Statement (PWS) said that the latter would establish “government organic capability” of the APG-81 and AAQ-37 for the Air Force’s 402nd Software Engineering Group at Robins “by providing data access to source code, technical data, software development environment and tools, and establishing testing capabilities at Robins Air Force Base.”
“This effort will be accomplished by Northrop Grumman, hereafter known as the contractor,” the notice said.
On sustainment, the PWS said that “the contractor shall establish a joint effort with the government to collaborate on investigation, analysis, evaluation, testing, and resolution for problems identified to meet the mission requirements of the F-35 JSF AN/APG-81 Radar System OFP and the AN/AAQ-37 DAS OFP” and that “the contractor shall lead OFP sustainment efforts between the government and contractor.”
“The contractor shall provide sufficient manpower for the investigation, development, integration, testing, and delivery of up to 24 Radar Deficiency Reports (DRs), up to 17 DAS DRs, and the necessary project management staffing for each domain,” the PWS said.
Defense Daily will add any clarifying response from the F-35 Joint Program Office or Northrop Grumman on the DRs and the business notice.
Northrop Grumman is developing the AN/APG-85 radar to replace the APG-81 on the F-35.
A Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ report in June said that the APG-85, which is to field in F-35 Lot 17 under the Block 4 upgrade, will have twice the capability of the APG-81 and “is a powerful cornerstone of the F-35’s sensor suite.”
“The difference from an operational perspective is comparable to switching from 1990s-era dial-up to 5G internet,” the report said.
The APG-85 “can suppress, defeat, and deny the enemy’s use of the broad electromagnetic spectrum,” the study said. “This also enables better targeting of surface or airborne radars at further ranges. Additionally, standoff threat suppression operations will be significantly more effective in the support of a strike package and improve the survivability of terminally guided weapons being employed against high-value surface-to-air missile sites.”
In addition, “with fidelity improvements realized from the AN/APG-85 in reducing target location errors, and a significant [sic] increased jamming capability against targeted threat radars, the aircraft will gain improved weapon delivery accuracy and can attain an increased probability of kill,” Mitchell said. “That means a more efficient use of weapons per aircraft and the ability to service more single weapon targets per sortie. This is a big deal when commanders will need to expand the number of aim points that can be hit in a concentrated period of time.”
The AAQ-37 DAS has six electro-optical sensors to give an F-35 pilot 360-degree awareness of missiles and aircraft, launch point detection, targeting, and day/night navigation.
The DAS sensor sends high-resolution real-time images to the pilot’s helmet, thus allowing the pilot to see through the bottom of the aircraft to the ground below.
Plans have called for the integration of the RTX [RTX] Next-Generation EO DAS to replace the AAQ-37 in all F-35 variants.
Northrop Grumman bowed out of a bid for the AAQ-37 follow-on program in 2018, as company executives said that the pay-off would be higher for other business opportunities. Lockheed Martin chose Raytheon as the new DAS supplier in June 2018. Plans have called for Lockheed Martin to deliver the Next-Generation EO DAS to the F-35 fleet beginning this year.
Lockheed Martin said last year that it was working with the Pentagon to address an AAQ-37 parts shortage, and Northrop Grumman said that it would deliver AAQ-37 through this year and provide sustainment for the system afterward (Defense Daily, Nov. 9, 2022).