USN’s New Range Aircraft: G550 CAEW
Mar 19, 2019 04:50 UTCLatest updates[?]: Australia will get four modified Gulfstream G550 business jets. The jets will be modified for the electronic warfare (EW) mission in the USA and the aircraft will be designated MC-55A Peregrine. The deal is worth $1.7 billion. The peregrine will be based at Royal Australian Air Force Edinburgh in South Australia alongside the RAAF’s P-8A Poseidons, and its incoming fleet of Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton UAVs. It will be integrated into Defense's joint warfighting networks, providing a critical link between platforms. In June 2017, the US State Department cleared a potential Australian acquisition for up to five G550’s. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency named L3 Technologies as the prime contractor for the Foreign Military Sales deal.
G550 CAEW
The US Navy is replacing its 2 NP-3D “Billboard” range monitoring aircraft with a new plane, which will use the same core design as the modern AWACS aircraft bought by Israel, Italy, and Singapore: “a Gulfstream G550 long-range business jet with the Conformal Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) structural modifications.”
The aircraft needs to be ready by the end of September 2017. So, why the G550 CAEW?
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