Jammer Bomber
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/02/2003, page 30
Robert Wall
Washington
B-52's electronic attack role faces funding, technical
roadblocks
The first piece of the U.S. Air Force's emerging electronic attack
architecture should be ready in four to six years, but the path to
using the B-52 in a standoff jamming role still faces several
hurdles.
With the Pentagon's EA-6B Prowlers rapidly nearing the end of their
service life and more capable air defenses emerging, senior Defense
Dept. officials ordered the military services to devise plans to
continue to meet electronic attack needs. The Navy has decided to
pursue the EA-18G (see p. 29), the Marines are taking a
wait-and-see attitude before committing to either the EA-18G or its
preferred option, a jamming derivative of the F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter. The Air Force followed a more complicated distributed
architecture, building on manned and unmanned systems.
But at the heart of the Air Force strategy are modifications to the
B-52, which would serve in a standoff jamming role. Service
officials are only slowly revealing details of their approach,
having spent the past months trying to refine their road map.
While the Navy and possibly the Marine Corps are eying dedicated
electronic warfare assets, the Air Force is pursuing an approach it
believes is more flexible. Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Leaf, USAF's
director of operational capability requirements, says "it will not
be an EB-52," short-hand for a dedicated electronic attack version
of the bomber. The B-52 "will happen to have a jamming capability.
But it will still be a capable bomber, a capable cruise missile
launcher. We don't have the extra assets to develop single-mission
airplanes."
