Air Force plans to cut Northrop radar program

Posted on: Oct. 3rd, 2006 || Source: Reuters | E-mail Article | Print Article

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force plans to end a Northrop Grumman Corp. program to develop an airborne surface surveillance system and a radar system to defend against cruise missiles, defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute said on Monday.

The Air Force had already scaled back the program, which was slated to cost $7.3 billion through 2013, driven in part by congressional budget cuts and a growing push to conduct surveillance from space.

Now it plans to cancel the project outright in fiscal 2008 to free funds for other weapons programs, said Thompson, who has close ties to defense officials.

"The service is abandoning its plans to build a next generation radar plane, and is also canceling the new radar that could have gone onto its existing (Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System, or JSTARS) plane," he said.

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