Boeing not exclusively teamed going into JSTARS battle

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman’s JSTARS teams are in a “blackout period” awaiting an announcement by the US Air Force in late August or early September about which prime contractors will proceed to the first stage of the multi-billion dollar aircraft recapitalisation programme.

The air force intends to select “up to three teams” for the forthcoming pre-development technology maturation and risk-reduction phase, meaning neither’s place is secure and one, or perhaps even two, primes could miss out.

Northrop and Lockheed used last month's Paris Air Show as a platform to announce their respective industry teams, but Boeing stayed surprisingly quiet about its offer, despite responding to the air force’s “request for quote” for an E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) replacement platform by the 9 June deadline.

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