Northrop Grumman’s LITENING Advanced Targeting has maintained an operational availability rate of 95 percent over more than two years, according to a company release. US and coalition military forces have flown LITENING AT for more than 370,000 combat hours out of a total of nearly 800,000 operational hours. The US Air Force flies the system on A-10, B-52, F-15E, and F-16 aircraft.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…