US Air Force awards Lockheed Martin U-2 aviation upgrade deal

US Air Force (USAF) officials have awarded Lockheed Martin a USD50 million deal to upgrade the avionics suite and mission and pilot interface systems aboard U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, enabling the legacy platform to leverage the latest advances in the integration of open system architecture technologies.

The Avionics Tech Refresh programme for the U-2 Dragon Lady will be spearheaded by Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks directorate, the company’s main research and development division, a 9 April company statement said. Skunkworks engineers will lead design, integration, and testing of new aviation components for the U-2, under the tech refresh programme, the statement noted.

Adoption and fielding of the new aviation components by the air force’s U-2 fleet is tentatively scheduled to begin in mid-2021, the company said. Programme and service officials are aiming for an early 2022 timeline for full integration and modification of the new mission system and avionic components for the U-2 fleet, developed under the tech refresh initiative.

The U-2 is set to continue its already more than 60-year service life, as the US Air Force plans to keep the platform operationally relevant over the coming years. (Lockheed Martin)

USAF officials set aside USD19 million to improve sustainment, modification, and modernisation of sensors, mission equipment, and expanding integration of platform capabilities such as future avionics and navigation technology refresh, mission planning software, infrastructure upgrades, and modernisation of aircraft datalinks.

Once complete, the upgrade and modification work executed under the tech refresh programme will make the air force’s U-2 fleet the first in the service to be fully compliant with the Open Mission Systems (OMS) technology standards. The Department of Defense and individual service branches have been slowly pushing toward the adoption of OMS standards.