Northrop Grumman Begins Installing New Engines On Joint STARS
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation two undefinitized contracts, worth $300 million collectively, to complete non-recurring engineering, flight test/certification and begin production of new engines for the service's E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) fleet.
Work will begin immediately with the test bed aircraft based in Melbourne being the first E-8 to convert to the Pratt and Whitney JT8D engine and complete military certification flight test activities, which will begin later this year. Concurrently, production startup activity begins with Northrop Grumman's principal subcontractors, Pratt and Whitney and Seven Q Seven, to produce a propulsion pod system that includes JT8D core engines, nacelles, thrust reversers and pylons. The first retrofit to the Joint STARS fleet is set for late 2010.
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