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Next Generation JSTARS

The Boeing Next Generation Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) offers benefits above and beyond competitors’ luxury business jet offerings. Built on the most successful platform in aviation history, the Boeing 737-700, JSTARS platform utilizes a One Boeing global infrastructure that is already in place like support, parts, training and sustainment. Other benefits include abundant SWaP-C, reduced fuel consumption, reduced tanker fleet requirement, manufacturing efficiencies, and increased aircraft availability rates.

Boeing is offering a version of its 737 passenger plane, while a bid from Lockheed Martin Corp. uses the smaller Bombardier Global 6000 jet. Northrop Grumman has teamed with the Gulfstream arm of General Dynamics Corp to offer a converted Gulfstream G550. The 737-700 is the smallest version of the line, but is still 3m (10ft) longer, nose to tail, than a Gulfstream G550. The 737 is about 10 feet longer than the rival jets and has more than double the cabin floor area. For the JStars host platform, Boeing applied modifications incorporated on the US Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, which is based on the 30-foot-longer 737-800, and on the Royal Australian Air Force’s Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, a 737-700.

The Boeing Business Jet (BBJ), launched in 1996 as a joint venture between Boeing and General Electric and designed for corporate and VIP applications, is a high-performance derivative of the 737-700. The BBJ 2, announced in October 1999, is based on the 737-800 and has 25 percent more cabin space and twice the cargo space of the BBJ.

The 737 serves as a platform for military derivatives, including airborne early warning and control (AEW&C). Nineteen 737-200s, modified as T-43 navigator trainers, served with the U.S. Air Force. The 737 also provides a platform for the U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon, a long-range maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft. The Navy C-40A Clipper is certified to operate in an all-passenger configuration, an all-cargo variant, or as a “combi” that accommodates both cargo and passengers on the main deck. The Air Force C-40B provides safe, comfortable and reliable transportation for U.S. combatant commanders and other senior government officials to locations around the world.