Aircraft
U.S. Air Force Drops Plan To Replace JSTARS Aircraft
Service says that "alternative means" are becoming available to do radar sensing and battle management.
There will be no direct airborne replacement for the aging Boeing 707s that do the JSTARS mission. (Photo: USAF)
There will be no direct airborne replacement for the aging Boeing 707s that do the JSTARS mission. (Photo: USAF)

The U.S. Air Force has dropped plans to replace the E-8C JSTARS aircraft with a new airborne platform. Three prime contractors for the airframe (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman) had submitted bids, and a winner was due to be named next month. But the service now says that a new platform might not be survivable in contested airspace, and that alternative means of gathering sensor data and doing battle management are becoming apparent.