The US Air Force has awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman to integrate its common link integration processing (CLIP) system on B-1B and B-52 aircraft.
Under the $14m contract, Northrop will deliver the CLIP system that will provide aircrews with enhanced battlefield awareness, communications capabilities and weapons management.
Northrop will also support software integration, ground and flight tests as well as air force and joint interoperability certifications as part of the 17-month contract extension.
All 66 aircraft in the B-1 bomber fleet and 94 aircraft in the B-52 fleet will be integrated with CLIP under the programme.
CLIP is a software package that allows existing platforms without a tactical data link, as well as platforms with different data links, to communicate with each other.
The system enables weapon systems to interface with the global information grid, easing crew workload by providing data to automatically retask the weapons system.
