The Air Force’s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile extended-range variant is now available to B-1B bomber crews to use in combat, announced officials at Dyess AFB, Texas. The base, home to the B-1s of the 7th Bomb Wing, received its first batch of JASSM-ER production missiles in March 2014. The declaration that the JASSM-ER is available for combat operations followed in early December, according to the base’s March 9 release. Weeks later, the Air Force approved the missile for full-rate production. JASSM-ER boasts roughly two and a half times the range of the baseline JASSM, meaning some 500 nautical miles. The B-1 is the only platform cleared to carry the extended-range version; the Air Force has integrated the baseline variant on B-2As, B-52Hs, F-16s, and F-15Es.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
