Maj. Gen. James Jones, the Air Force’s top planner, told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday that the service will continue to rely heavily on the Navy’s EA-18G Growlers and EA-6B Prowlers for stand-in jamming, as well as the Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer and certain onboard capabilities of the F-35A. Jones also noted that USAF plans to take down half of its EC-130 Compass Call fleet—seven aircraft—because the platform is “not survivable” against modern anti-access, area denial systems. But beyond some pod updates, he wouldn’t discuss the electronic attack, electronic warfare roadmap, except to say that “there are things in the black world”—top secret—that will have a bearing on it. At AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, a Northrop Grumman “electronic billboard” showed a stealthy-looking unmanned flying wing vehicle with a Global Hawk-like uplink fairing, labeled as a “Penetrating Stand-In Airborne Electronic Attack” platform. The company had no literature to share about the concept.
The Air Force is placing Air Combat Command in charge of teaching combat tactics to fighter and remotely-piloted aircraft units, according to a May 12 announcement. Beginning this summer, the service will reassign the formal training units for the F-35, F-16, and MQ-9 from Air Education and Training Command to…