Gen. Ron
ald Keys, head of Air Combat Command, for one is ready to restart the B-52 standoff jammer program. Speaking with defense reporters in Washington Thursday morning, Keys acknowledged, as Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley had earlier, “We got enamored with everything it could do instead of just filling the gap that needed to be filled, which is essentially low band search and early warning radars.” The two senior leaders agree also “if the price starts to get away from us again, we’ll kill it again,” asserted Keys. For Round 2, Keys wants a “meat and potatoes core component jammer” utilizing 56 B-52 bombers.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
