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E-2D Hawkeye: The Navy’s New AWACS

Apr 29, 2013 18:03 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff

Latest update [?]

April 24/13: Software. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Bethpage, NY receives a $23 million firm-fixed-price delivery order for software sustainment of Full Rate Production Lot 1 aircraft. This delivery order provides all aspects of software management support, including the update and maintenance through the life cycle support. Test reports say the E-2D has some significant software issues (vid. Jan 17/13 entry), so there’s no shortage of things to do.

Work will be performed in Bethpage, NY (86.5%); Syracuse, NY (9.7%); Marlborough, MA (1.3%); Greenlawn, NY (1.3%), and Woodland Hills, CA (1.2%), and is expected to be complete in October 2014. FY 2011 and 2012 Aircraft Procurement funds are being used, and the entire amount is committed immediately. $14.5 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/13 (N00019-10-G-0004).

April 10/13: FY 2014 Budget. The President releases a proposed budget at last, the latest in modern memory. The Senate and House were already working on budgets in his absence, but the Pentagon’s submission is actually important to proceedings going forward. See ongoing DID coverage.

The FY 2014 request proposes a multi-year agreement (MYP) for 32 E-2Ds, plus options on another 5 from FY 2014-2018, leaving 18 planes left to buy. If the Navy exercises its MYP options in FY 2015-2016, it could bring full-rate production to a steady rate of 8 planes per year. The Navy is estimating MYP savings of $522.8 million over 5 separate annual contracts. About 30% of that is attributable to electronic components whose minimum buy quantities can’t be met under single year procurements, which makes their cost artificially high unless bought in a multi-year deal.

Note that Navy budget documents show the E-2D as a 114-plane program, a figure that must count a number of E-2C 2000 buys. A careful look at actual E-2D orders and schedules confirms that it remains a 75 plane program.

March 28/13: GAO Report. The US GAO tables its “Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs“. Which is actually a review for 2012, plus time to compile and publish. The assessment notes that the Navy has stretched production out in order to “save” annual funds, but will pay $1.3 billion more in total – nearly double the March 30/12 SAR’s figure. That might be reduced a bit if the program gets a 32-38 plane multi-year buy approved for FY 2014 – 2018.

On the good news front, the E-2D remains a low-drama program, and the long-standing issue of radar reliability (vid. Jan 17/13 entry) has improved and reached the test plan requirement.

The above update is a recent abstract from our full article, itself part of our subscription offering. Keep reading to know more.

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Northrop Grumman’s E-2C Hawkeye is a carrier-capable “mini-AWACS” aircraft, designed to give long-range warning of incoming aerial threats. Secondary roles include strike command and control, land and maritime surveillance, search and rescue, communications relay, and even civil air traffic control during emergencies. E-2C Hawkeyes began replacing previous Hawkeye versions in 1973. They fly from USN and French carriers, from land bases in the militaries of Egypt, Japan, Mexico, and Taiwan; and in a drug interdiction role for the US Naval Reserve. Over 200 Hawkeyes have been produced.

The $17.5 billion E-2D Advanced Hawkeye program aims to build 75 new aircraft with significant radar, engine, and electronics upgrades in order to deal with a world of stealthier cruise missiles, saturation attacks, and a growing need for ground surveillance as well as aerial scans. It looks a lot like the last generation E-2C Hawkeye 2000 upgrade on the outside – but inside, and even outside to some extent, it’s a whole new aircraft.