Non-Subscriber Extract
Second bid stalls to re-role B-52s into jammers
- Article Tools
| 06 November 2006 |
By Stephen Trimble JDW Americas Bureau Chief
Washington, DC
Senior US Air Force (USAF) officials have confirmed to Jane's that the Core Component Jammer (CCJ) concept - a second attempt to transform some of the Boeing B-52H bomber fleet into long-range jamming platforms - has so far not succeeded.
The loss potentially leaves fighter and bomber crews more vulnerable to a new class of enemy air-defence systems after 2012.
"We have a capability gap," Brigadier General Andrew Dichter, deputy director, operational capability requirements, said in a 2 November interview. "Does that mean we can't penetrate enemy airspace? No. There is just more risk."
Since 2002, the USAF and Department of Defense have advocated a system of systems approach to the electronic-warfare mission, with different platforms performing the stand-in, penetrator, escort and stand-off jamming roles. That concept created a requirement for the CCJ's aborted predecessor - the B-52 Stand-off Jammer System (SOJS).
The SOJS was originally focused on defeating the early-warning radar threat, but ran into trouble as requirements expanded to cover mid- and high-frequency radar threats as well as address a growing set of counter-insurgency needs, including improvised explosive device defeat. By August 2005, the SOJS had cost estimate more than tripled to USD6.9 billion.
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© 2006 Jane's Information Group
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