The E-2C Hawkeye is the U.S. Navy1s all-weather airborne early-warningaircraft and an integral component of the Navy1s carrier air wing. Althoughsome of the fleet E-2Cs are currently being replaced with an enhancedversion of the aircraft, many E-2Cs are approaching their service lifelimits and the Navy is concerned about the aging fleet1s ability to satisfyfuture operational performance requirements. The Navy soon has to decidewhether to buy new aircraft, retrofit old aircraft or refurbish them toextend their service lives, or adopt some combination of these options. Thisbook analyzes the costs, benefits, and risks of those options. The authorsfind that none of the life-extension and retrofit options can sustain therequired minimum number of available aircraft over the long run unless theNavy also buys some new E-2C aircraft, and radar-modernization retrofittingcoupled with a life-extension program is so expensive that it would be morecost effective to buy new aircraft already equipped with the upgraded radar.In addition, a steady flow of E-2C work is critical to the Saint Augustinefacility of Northrop Grumman Corporation, the E-2C prime contractor, andmaintaining such a workflow is not feasible with a life-extension programalone.
About the Author
Obaid Younossi (B.S. Mechanical Engineering University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA) is an engineer, Research Staff Management Division.
Mark V. Arena (Stanford University Stanford, CA Ph.D. / Physical Chemistry) is a physical scientist at RAND.
Jerry Sollinger (PhD, English, University of Pittsburgh) is a communications analyst at RAND.
MICHAEL A. BOITO (Syracuse University: Masters in Public Administration) is a consultant at RAND.
