Boeing says its subcontractor EADS has started a series of system enhancements on the first of 17 NATO AWACS aircraft. The upgrades are part of a $1.32 billion mid-term modernization program. (The US Air Force AWACS E-3 aircraft already are undergoing a similar upgrade. DR 9/14/05). EADS is working on the NATO birds in Manching, Germany. Boeing says the first aircraft should be done by November, with the entire fleet completed in 2008.
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…