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.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.