Air Force Materiel Command personnel at Robins AFB, Ga., are about halfway through Phase 1 of USAF’s new Sniper pod program. Lockheed Martin originally designed the next generation Sniper targeting pod for use on fighters in a traditional bombs-on-target role. However, it has proved enormously successful in both Iraq and Afghanistan as an intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance device. (Read “Pilots Praise New F-15E Targeting Pods” here.) Personnel at AFMC’s Warner Robins Air Logistics Center gained a workload of about 4,300 hours when it took on the Sniper program in a work/share partnership with Lockheed. By June 2006, the ALC expects to enter Phase 2—increasing its workload to more than 7,000 hours—in which it will handle electro-optical test and repair. Lockheed technicians are training the ALC Sniper workforce eventually to handle the majority of repair work.
It is critical that the Air Force move forward on the replacement for its E-4B “Doomsday” aircraft to keep the capability “viable” into the next decade and beyond, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told lawmakers May 8.