Northrop Grumman Receives $56.2 Million Contract to Expand Targeting Capabilities for Joint STARS

Northrop Grumman Corporation has received a $56.2 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide an Enhanced Land/ Maritime Mode (ELMM) mobile target precision tracking and engagement capability for the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft fleet. This contract is an outgrowth of the successful DARPA Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement (AMSTE) program demonstrated in recent exercises and includes an Advanced Radar Mode (ARM) upgrade to the Joint STARS sensor.

The E-8C Joint STARS is an advanced wide-area airborne ground-surveillance, targeting and battle-management system. It detects, locates, classifies, tracks and targets hostile ground movements, communicating real-time information through secure data links with joint and component command and control elements.

The ARM upgrade will provide a Swath Synthetic Aperture Radar (Swath SAR) mode and provide an Enhanced SAR mode in a new processing architecture that provides additional growth for future enhancements. It also provides additional capability to disseminate high resolution imagery from the Joint STARS radar to ground commanders.

All Joint STARS aircraft are assigned to the Georgia Air National Guard's 116th Air Control Wing, a "total-force blended wing," based at Robins Air Force Base, Warner Robins, GA. The wing comprises active-duty Air Force, Army and Air National Guard personnel.