The final version of the defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2011 backs a Senate provision barring the Navy from retiring its EP-3 aircraft until they can be adequately replaced. The Navy scrapped plans for building a new EPX follow-on spy plane early this year, and sources previously told Inside the Navy that the service would probably seek to use an existing platform, such as a P-8A Poseidon, to carry a signals intelligence payload. The Defense Department wrote in...
