A Northrop Grumman-led industry team with Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications has tested a unique application of the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for high-bandwidth communications. Northrop officials say that the technology breakthrough demonstrated with the F-22 fighter’s AN/APG-77 radar aperture and a common data link modem emulator mean Northrop’s AESA and L-3’s CDL modem can transmit both communication and imagery data at two to four times the standard modem speed. They say the capability directly supports emerging non-traditional ISR efforts, especially efforts to have the F-22 and F-35 transmit and receive large, uncompressed data packages and images within seconds.
In the final few hours before the Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day recess on May 26, lawmakers approved a raft of some 3,400 pending military nominations, including a number of high-profile Air Force and Space Force generals to assignments that will significantly reshape some of the upper echelons of…