PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - More KC-46A woes....
View Single Post
Old 28th Jan 2015, 13:50
  #194 (permalink)  
KenV
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: New Braunfels, TX
Age: 70
Posts: 1,954
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Regarding all the E-8 J-STARS replacement discussions:

USN is trying to leverage its way into the radar ground surveillance business. All the P-8s will be capable of accepting the AAS radar, which does everything the J-STARS radar does and lots more. The airframe already has lots of processor power and display/control consoles, cooling, on and off board networking, etc on board, so all that would be needed besides the radar hardware is additional software in the control consoles. So putting a J-STARS capability on a P-8 will be MUCH cheaper then developing a dedicated replacement for the E-8. And USN will have hundreds of P-8s vs USAF's 16 E-8s, which should provide operational cost advantages.
KenV is offline