Boeing has been selected by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence as a preferred bidder to compete in a technology demonstration programme as part of Project Eagle, a major upgrade to the UK’s AWACS fleet.

Under the TDP contract, Boeing will demonstrate through a series of test scenarios that its system meets the requirements of the UK customer, with demonstrations being conducted in a lab environment in Kent, Washington, with operator consoles using an early version of the proposed software.

Boeing brings extensive integration experience to this competition as prime contractor for the NATO AWACS Mid-Term modernisation and U.S. AWACS Block 40/45 programmes.

Boeing’s technology demonstrator is based on the Block 40/45 upgrade.  This provides new mission hardware and software to integrate information from on-board and off-board sources and provides the airborne operators with improved situational awareness and automated battle management tools. These upgrades dramatically enhance the capability of the global AWACS fleet, making it a prime catalyst for network-enabled capability.

Boeing delivered the first AWACS for the United Kingdom in March of 1991 and completed delivery with the seventh aircraft in May 1992.  Recent upgrades include installation of radar system improvement programme kits, a Global Positioning System and enhanced identification friend or foe and collision avoidance systems.