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 rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
