The Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin $46.8 million in contract options to upgrade its Atmospheric Warning System radars throughout the US and Canada. The contract covers initial planning and design work to modernize 29 AN/FPS-117 long-range surveillance radars, which were initially built by Lockheed in the 1980s under the Seek Igloo North Warning program, according to a company release. It includes 15 radars in Alaska, 11 in Canada, as well as individual sites in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Utah. The solid-state L-band radar is capable of continuously covering airspace out to 250 miles using unmanned operations that are reliable even in harsh Arctic climates. Lockheed expects to be awarded follow-on contract options to update the radar’s signal and data processing, extending the network life-span through 2025, states the release. The company already has completed similar work at sites in the UK, Germany, Romania, and Kuwait.
No sooner had the Defense Intelligence Agency issued its North Korean Military Power report, in which it predicted Pyongyang would resume ballistic missile tests, than North Korea did exactly that, lofting a submarine-launched ballistic missile Oct. 19. The test, in which an SLBM launched from the port of Sinpo into…