Funny you should mention the E2D program. I spent many years as a test engineer on the E3A program for Boeing.
Get yourself a spectrum analyzer and measure the noise floor at those locations in Vegas. Be careful not to aim your antenna at the horizon. Aim it straight up. I bet you will find the noise floor is no different from anywhere else in the US.
While testing servos for a magazine article, ( have been retired since 2001) I found the 8411 and the 8611 not great at producing loaded torque. Although the no load deadband was very good, they did not produce well when loaded. If you change to the Hitec 5955 or later servo you will notice an improvement. That is if you don't spoil it with a large negative expo setting.
The JR servos just had a poor torque vs error signal curve. I have not tested their servos later than the 8611.
The A123 batteries start at 3.3V with no load and drop to 2.7V at 40 amp load. That regulation would be hard to match with a regulator.