P-AMPered Cargo.

This article reports that the U.S. Air Force is expecting to announce new cost overruns in a $4-billion Boeing program to modernize the avionics on 434 C-130 aircrafts, prompting talk of scrapping or downsizing the effort, possibly to buy new Lockheed Martin C-130J airplanes instead. The Air Force has scaled back the number of aircraft participating in the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) to 434 from the 519 planned in 2001 as a result of cracks found in the oldest C-130E center wing boxes. Boeing Co., won the C-130 AMP in 2001, beating out C-130 manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp., BAE Systems and L-3 Communications. Although Boeing managed to hold onto the massive development contract, the U.S. Government Accountability Office directed the Air Force to conduct a competition for production of the AMP installation kits, which is not expected to be underway until 2009. So, the pressure is for Boeing to demonstrate AMP in the coming months. It calls for removing more than 30 old steam gauges and 1960s-era indicators, replacing them with six 6 X 8-in. flat-panel displays, two large heads-up displays, two multifunction control displays and new communications and navigation panels.