B-2 MARKS 10TH YEAR NORTHROP, AIR FORCE CELEBRATE BOMBER.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. and the Air Force are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the official start of the B-2 stealth bomber's military service. During a brief ceremony Tuesday at the company's Palmdale plant, Northrop Grumman and Air Force officials re-enacted the signing of the delivery papers of the first operational B-2 bomber. The ceremony involved John Cissell, Northrop Grumman's manager of quality assurance for the Palmdale airframe maintenance operation, and Joe Lora, representing the Defense Department's contract management agency. The celebration is scheduled to continue today with the scheduled flight scheduled flight schedule n → vol régulier scheduled flight schedule n → Linienflug m of a B-2 departing Air Force Plant 42 at approximately 8 a.m. to Whiteman Air Force Base Whiteman Air Force Base (Whiteman AFB) is a base of the United States Air Force in Johnson County, Missouri, United States. It is near the town of Knob Noster, Missouri. The population was 3,814 at the 2000 census. in Missouri - a re-creation of the delivery flight that occurred 10 years ago. The same aircraft that flew 10 years ago, the Spirit of Missouri, is making today's flight. ``As our nation celebrates the 100th anniversary of powered flight, it is fitting that we pay tribute to the women and men of the Air Force and the Northrop Grumman industry team who made the B-2 such a breakthrough in aviation,'' said Scott J. Seymour, Northrop Grumman corporate vice president and Integrated Systems sector president. ``No aircraft can match its combination of persistence, stealth and precision weapons.'' The celebration will involve Whiteman, where the occasion will be marked by the 509th Bomb Wing that flies the B-2 bomber fleet, and at the United States Air Force United States Air Force (USAF) Major component of the U.S. military organization, with primary responsibility for air warfare, air defense, and military space research. It also provides air services in coordination with the other military branches. U.S. Museum in Dayton, Ohio Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Montgomery County. As of the 2005 census estimate, the population of Dayton was 158,873. , where a nonflying B-2 used for ground tests will be christened the Spirit of Freedom. Built to evaluate the B-2 airframe's structural integrity, the ground-test version will remain available to Air Force personnel for developing improvements for the active B-2 fleet, Northrop Grumman said. In its 10 years of service, the bomber has seen combat in three wars - the Kosovo air war and more recently in Afghanistan and Iraq. The B-2 can fly more than 6,000 miles unrefueled and more than 10,000 nautical nau·ti·cal adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of ships, shipping, sailors, or navigation on a body of water. [From Latin nauticus, from Greek nautikos, from miles with one aerial refueling Aerial refueling, also called Air refueling or in-flight refueling (IFR) or air-to-air refueling (AAR) or (in the UK) tanking. Note that AAR also stands for "After Action Review" (de-briefing) and in aviation, IFR also stands for , giving it the ability to fly to any point on the globe within hours, Northrop Grumman officials said. ``We continue to work with the Air Force on a number of upgrade programs to ensure the B-2 remains as advanced in the future as it was the day it was delivered,'' said Northrop Grumman spokesman Jim Hart. The upgrades include expanding the bomber's weapons-carrying capability. The Air Force and Northrop Grumman are working on equipping the B-2 to carry as many as 80 500-pound independently targeted, satellite-guided weapons, compared with its current capacity of 16 2,000-pound bombs. Upgrades also include a better communication system to allow the pilots to exchange information with commanders and other aircraft and a new radar system. The radar modification consists of an active electronically scanned array An Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), also known as active phased array radar is a type of radar whose transmitter and receiver functions are composed of numerous small transmit/receive (T/R) modules. antenna that will resolve a conflict with the so-called Ku Band frequency spectrum, which the Federal Communications Commission Federal Communications Commission (FCC), independent executive agency of the U.S. government established in 1934 to regulate interstate and foreign communications in the public interest. has opened up to commercial communications transmissions. The new radar will also improve performance in range and detail, officials said. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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