GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Cost restructuring comes as Boeing closes in on USN/USMC contracts on 48 aircraft
Boeing's avionics modernisation programme (AMP) for US Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130s has been restructured to minimise the impact of a funding cut that threatened to delay the programme by two years. First flight of an upgraded C-130 has slipped by a year to 2006, while Special Operations Forces (SOF) has pitched in additional funding to "re-accelerate" the modernisation of its aircraft.
The restructuring comes as Boeing nears its first C-130 AMP orders from outside the USAF. A contract to upgrade 20 US Navy and 28 US Marine Corps aircraft is expected by year-end. Sweden is close to a decision to upgrade eight aircraft, says Stephanie Mossengren, AMP business development manager, speaking at the Air Force Association Convention in Washington DC last week.
Boeing has also submitted an offer to Saudi Arabia to upgrade 50-59 C-130s, Israel for 18 and Portugal for six. The company has made an unsolicited bid to modernise 26 UK Royal Air Force C-130Ks, but "no bid" in New Zealand, she says.
The AMP is intended to upgrade around 500 USAF C-130s in 14 families to one core configuration with five variants - four of which are SOF. The first upgraded C-130s are to be redelivered to Air Mobility Command in 2008, followed soon after by the first SOF aircraft.
Meanwhile, Boeing and the US Air Force have studied re-engining the Rockwell B-1B to restore the bomber's high-speed, high-altitude performance to stay clear of "double-digit" surface-to-air missiles. The General Electric F101-powered B-1B is limited to around Mach 1.2 and 35,000ft (10,700m).
Re-engining with the Pratt & Whitney F119 would take the aircraft to M2.2 and 60,000ft, while the Joint Strike Fighter's P&W F135 would give the bomber an unreheated supercruise capability, says Boeing. But the company acknowledges re-engining is probably too expensive. A new study on re-engining the B-52, meanwhile, is to be completed next month.
Source: Flight International
