A panel of lawmakers wants the U.S. Air Force to study integrating stand-off jamming systems on tactical fighters and the entire Defense Department to prioritize development of cognitive electronic warfare capabilities.
Both proposals will be voted on by the House Armed Services subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces during a mark-up session on the fiscal 2022 defense authorization bill on Jan. 29.
Specifically, a subcommittee member has proposed that the Air Force study the “feasibility and advisability” of integrating a Raytheon ALQ-249 mid-band radar jammer on its tactical fighter fleet.
The Air Force retired its own fleet of dedicated stand-off jammers in 1997, citing a planned shift to an all-stealth fleet of fighters and bombers within the next two decades.
The Navy continued operating the Boeing EA-18G Growler fleet for stand-off jamming support. The Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) program also launched production of the ALQ-249 mid-band jammer this summer and development of the L3Harris low-band jammer last year.
The committee’s report does not identify which aircraft the Air Force should study, but likely options include the non-stealthy F-15EX, F-15E and F-16C/D fleets.
The F-15EX is based on the design of the F-15QA, which includes a modification for Saudi F-15SAs that allows the aircraft to carry the Raytheon AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM). A package of ALQ-249s and AGM-88s on the F-15EX would give the Air Force a classic stand-off jamming capability on the fighter fleet, augmenting the stand-off jamming systems operating by the EC-130 and future EC-37B Compass Call aircraft.
The subcommittee also will vote on a proposal to make the Defense Department scrutinize investments in cognitive electronic warfare.
Cognitive electronic warfare software allows an onboard processor to identify a new signal that has not been observed before and immediately develop a countermeasure against it.
“The committee is concerned, however, with the pace of development of true cognitive electronic warfare capabilities,” the legislative proposal says.
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