B-52 jammer project faces chop

Published: Jan 10, 2006
Source: www.flightinternational.com



An increasingly vocal group of US lawmakers who champion electronic warfare (EW) programmes have taken up the cause of an endangered US Air Force plan to modify Boeing B-52 bombers with a new stand-off jammer pod.

The Electronic Warfare Working Group, founded by Pennsylvania Representative Joseph Pitts, says it is “alarming to hear” that the air force is thinking about cancelling the B-52 Stand-Off Jammer System (SOJS) programme. A new issue brief signed by Pitts argues that such a move risks repeating a 1997 mistake when the USAF withdrew from the EW mission by retiring its last General Dynamics EF-111 jammers. That decision left the military completely dependent on the US Navy’s ageing Northrop EA-6B Prowlers for all stand-off jamming missions.continue..