Air Force prepares to restart B-52 jammer programme By Marcus Weisgerber
The US Air Force is expected to take a significant step forward this month as it attempts to revive an effort to field an airborne electronic attack aircraft in the next decade.
Requirements officials have quietly constructed a funding plan within the air force's internal six-year spending plan that would allow the service to begin testing high-tech electronic warfare components that could one day be installed on a portion of the Boeing B-52 bomber fleet.
If the core component jammer (CCJ) wins approval from senior USAF leaders in the programme objective memorandum and then eventually gets congressional backing, a demonstration of the technology could take place by fiscal year 2012, says Col Bob Schwarze, the air force's chief of EW and cyber warfare requirements.
Also this month, the air force is expected to award several contracts for separate EW technology maturation research and development work, which will be directly applied to the jammer programme.
"We are looking at trying to get back into the stand-off jamming business with airborne electronic attack," says Schwarze.
Air force EW officials have rescoped the CCJ programme, bringing it more into line with five-year-old plans to equip the venerable Stratofortress bomber with a stand-off jamming capability.
Stand-off jamming is aimed at the enemy's low-band, early-warning radars. It enables attack jets and other aircraft to enter that airspace undetected and take out surface-to-air missiles sites and other threats.
Adding highly advanced EW capabilities to the bomber would enhance the air force's initial strike package at the onset of conflict.
Theatre Air Campaign
If equipped with the stand-off jamming capability, the EB-52 would be integrated into a theatre air campaign along with other first-strike aircraft, such as the stealthy fifth-generation Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor. EW capability would enable the Stratofortress to launch kinetic strikes with cruise missiles or GPS-guided smart bombs while engaging in offensive airborne electronic attack.
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http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/07/07/225111/air-force-prepares-to-restart-b-52-jammer-programme.html
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