The U.S. Air Force plans to upgrade the Boeing-built B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber with a Raytheon Technologies-developed radar and a new engine from Rolls-Royce to keep the aircraft operational through 2050, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

Col. Louis Ruscetta, senior materiel leader of the Air Force’s B-52 division, said the service was working to determine possible “friction areas” to ensure that changes in one of the two major upgrades don’t have an unintentional effect across the bomber fleet.

“There’s a lot that can go wrong on the program management side,” he said. “We have to try to manage and reduce what can go wrong.”

The Air Force will integrate the Raytheon-made AN/APG-79 radar into B-52 and Ruscetta said the new capability will provide the aircraft with improved situational awareness to identify and counter targets.

He said flight testing is set to begin in late 2025 and the service intends to achieve initial operating capability status for the radar upgrade in 2027.

In September 2021, Rolls-Royce won a potential $2.6 billion contract to provide replacement engines – F130 – for the bombers. 

Ruscetta said the Air Force conducted a preliminary design review of engine subsystem in July and plans to hold a full system preliminary design assessment later in 2022.

The military branch expects to equip the first B-52 bombers with new engines between 2026 and 2027 and reach IOC status for the engine replacement program in 2030.

The Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory is conducting market research into commercial off-the-shelf business systems that can help the facility’s operator to manage registrations and credentials for onsite or digital access to the research center.

A request for information posted Friday on SAM.gov indicates the lab is interested in adopting a centralized platform that will support the collection and processing of data on center employees and visitors.

Argonne wants a system that can integrate with existing customized and commercial applications at the facility and accommodate multiple data flows to determine information such as whether a registrant is new or returning.

The platform should also include built-in features meant to eliminate duplication and allow users to track the status of their registrations and update their information.

Responses to the RFI notice are due Sept. 23rd.

Pete Muend, director of the National Reconnaissance Office’s commercial systems program office, said the NRO is reviewing proposals under the Commercial Strategic Enhancement broad agency announcement and plans to issue awards to radio frequency satellite companies as early as September, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

“We do have proposals, and we’re eagerly looking forward to completing that source selection and awarding multiple awards in all likelihood as soon as next month,” Muend said Thursday during a webinar.

Muend said the BAA’s next focus is on hyperspectral imagery and that the NRO intends to release a solicitation for proposals later in 2022.

In January, the NRO awarded contracts to five commercial radar satellite providers using the BAA.

Muend noted that the NRO is also broadening the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate analysis of imagery resources and facilitate decision-making processes for warfighters.

Intel Corporation, the multinational manufacturer of microprocessors, has teamed with Brookfield Asset Management to create an investment initiative for semiconductor production.

The Semiconductor Co-Investment Program puts forward a new financial model to accelerate semiconductor chip construction in Arizona-based facilities through a $30 million joint offering from Intel and Brookfield, the Santa Clara-headquartered company said Tuesday.

“This landmark arrangement is an important step forward for Intel’s Smart Capital approach and builds on the momentum from the recent passage of the CHIPS Act in the U.S.,” remarked David Zinsner, chief financial officer of Intel.

Zinsner also said SCIP is an untested strategy for the industry that is intended to enable flexibility in the company’s activities as well as promoting an equivocal, strong supply chain.

In this way, SCIP is an outgrowth of Intel’s Smart Capital endeavor, which seeks to make progress on its IDM 2.0 efforts in a financially stable and forthright manner. The companies’ joint funds will be applied toward Intel’s Chandler, Arizona Ocotillo campus, which is undergoing renovation and additions. Since Intel is pledging 51 percent of the $30 billion, it will continue to be the majority owner and operator of the pair of chip factories under construction.

Ultimately, the arrangement is projected to incur $15 billion worth of cumulative benefit for Intel’s adjusted free cash flow as well as accretive to its earnings.

According to Intel, the new agreement between Intel and Brookfield is seen as a demonstration of how private capital can be a “force multiplier for government incentives for the semiconductor manufacturing expansion” in the wake of the signing into law of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.