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Archives by date > 2009 > March > 24th

Spectrum Squeeze to K.O. B-2 Bomber’s Radar?

Mar 24, 2009 17:38 UTC

AIR_B-2_4oc.jpg

B-2 Spirit

America’s 21 B-2A Spirit stealth bombers have been leaders in stealth technology and weapon support arrangements. Now, they’re a leader in a less desirable category. DTI’s Bill Sweetman reports that during a 2008 bandwidth auction, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission inadvertently sold the operating frequency band of the B-2 bomber’s Raytheon AN/APQ-181 radar to an obscure firm headed by a Russian-educated citizen of Mali. Installing new radar arrays on the 20 surviving jets will reportedly cost “well over $1 billion.”

Sweetman notes that this is just one side effect of spectrum allocation problems, and greater civilian appetites for its use. Patriot PAC-3 missiles that are critical to Japan’s missile defense system have problems there, because the radios used to link all the scattered firing units use frequencies assigned to the Japanese cell phone industry. The JTIDS predecessor to modern Link-16 MIDS-LVTs is currently the only way to get AWACS targeting data to an F-22, but it has “limited supportability outside the continental U.S.” because it was developed in an occupied band. Even flight testing and telemetry is beginning to have these problems.

18 Super Tucanos to Ecuador

Mar 24, 2009 16:28 UTC

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AIR Super Tucano Seaside Bank

Super Tucano

In January 2009, “8 Super Tucanos to Dominican Republic” added that a 24 plane sale worth up to $280 million was also pending to Ecuador, on South America’s west-central coast. Embraer has now confirmed that sale.

The Fuerza Aerea Ecuatoriana has come into conflict with Peru over border disputes, with full-scale combat breaking out as recently as 1981 and 1995. The Brazilia treaty of 1998 has quieted that threat for now, allowing the government to focus on other missions…

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