Boeing’s $2.8 Billion Awacs Plane Upgrade Slowed by Lab Closings
- Airborne Early Warning and Control planes are Air Force staple
- Classified software labs were closed a year over certification
A U.S. Air Force AWAC.
Photographer: Paul C Gordon/U.S. Air Force
This article is for subscribers only.
A $2.8 billion Boeing Co. upgrade of its Awacs surveillance planes is dogged by delays caused in part by an almost yearlong closing of two classified laboratories developing software for the project, Pentagon agencies disclosed.
The two laboratories in Oklahoma City failed to pass Defense Department security certifications from January to December of last year. Boeing builds the aircraft, a staple of U.S. and allied surveillance arsenals, that coordinates friendly planes and detects enemy aircraft.