THE US NAVY'S E-2C Hawkeye airborne-early-warning (AEW) aircraft is being singled out by Paul Kaminski, the US Defense Department's acquisition chief, as a model for Pentagon acquisition reform.
He says that application of new procurement practices will yield "billions of dollars in savings", including an estimated $375 million for E-2C production alone. William Cohen, the US defence secretary, says that contractors "-will no longer be shackled by regulations and red tape". Cohen says that US defence acquisition had been "-sliding into collapse by virtue of its own weight".
Northrop Grumman can expect to earn over $1 billion as a result of the USN's decision to buy at least 36 new E-2Cs, while older aircraft are expected to be upgraded for service up until at least 2015.
The company recently rolled out the first of the 36 new Group 2E-2Cs, and the USN late in 1996 accepted the first of 12 Group 1 E-2Cs which are being upgraded to the Group 2 configuration which includes structural enhancements and avionics-system upgrades. Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman is qualifying a new mission computer which is part of its Hawkeye 2000 upgrade.
Northrop Grumman's decision to shift E-2C production from its Calverton, New York, site to St. Augustine, Florida, helped cut labour costs. At the same time, detailed parts are now being produced by outside vendors, and hardware from retired aircraft is going into the new Hawkeyes.
The firm is working on yet another major overhaul of the E-2C, dubbed the Hawkeye 2005, which would include a new radar and other enhancements. Funded by Northrop Grumman and the USN, the effort aims to replace the current APS-145 radar with an electronically scanned-array radar being developed by Northrop Grumman.
The project also includes a surveillance infra-red search-and-track (IRST) system. Hughes Aircraft is providing a surveillance IRST for a flight demonstration in 1998. Hawkeye 2005 also offers a new communications suite and an upgraded electronic-support measures (ESM) suite.
The Hawkeye 2005 project will feed into the E-2C or the proposed Common Support Aircraft envisioned to replace Northrop Grumman's Hawkeye and C-2 Grey- hound and the Lockheed S-3B Viking and ES-3A Shadow.
Source: Flight International
