The Air Force and prime contractor Northrop Grumman chose a Pratt & Whitney engine to replace the existing P&W engines on the service’s fleet of 19 E-8 Joint STARS ground surveillance aircraft. A P&W statement called its JT8D-219 propulsion system the “most cost-effective approach.” And, a Northrop release asserted that, over the life of the program, the new engines “will pay for themselves in cost savings” when compared to the cost to maintain the older, existing engines.
At the rocky edge of a cliff on Hawaii’s Oahu island are poised three antenna dishes that rotate with the sun. Together, they form part of a global network to warn warfighters of solar activity that can disrupt radio signals and potentially send false data to the battlefield, a rising…