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.
A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as of late.