Gen. Ronald Keys, Air Combat Command chief, says the B-52 Standoff Jammer sounded like a good idea at the time, but has proven tough in the details. “If it was so easy, we would have done it years ago,” Keys said in a press conference Thursday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando. Solving the many problems of deconflicting the radio beams from other, affected parts of the airframe, not to mention generating enough power and the interface with the B-52’s systems, puts USAF “back at the drawing board.” The B-52 SOJ was nominated by the Air Force to be cancelled in the fiscal 2007 budget, due out Monday. Still, Keys said ACC believes it needs “some kind of standoff jamming” so as not to tip off an enemy that an attack is underway until it’s too late.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
