Forum: General F-35 Forum

Navy, Marines Top Pentagon EW Investment By Michael Fabey 23 July 2012

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.asp ... ml&p=1

"The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are expected to outspend each of their sister services roughly two-to-one on electronic warfare (EW) programs during the next decade....

...“For the last 30 years, the Air Force has emphasized stealth in its aircraft modernization plans while the Navy has stressed electronic attack,” says Loren Thompson, defense analyst for the Lexington Institute. “The Air Force hasn't paid much attention to jamming and the Navy hasn't paid much attention to low-observables.”

While that likely will change as the Navy acquires a carrier-based version of the stealthy F-35 fighter aircraft, Thompson says, “The Navy is the main repository of electronic warfare expertise in the joint force, and that inclines it to assign less importance to low-observables.” For aircraft launched from carriers or other vessels, jamming and EW are often more valuable and effective than stealthiness....

...The next two leading EW platforms are aircraft—the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is listed under the Air Force's account and the Navy's Growlers—both totaling about $1.5 billion each in the 10-year period, the analysis shows."

LONGish article with most of it about the money at URL.

F-16.net Sponsor

The Air Force has a problem in that area in the short to mid term as most of their strike capability for next 15-20 years is still provided by the F-15E, F-16, and B-1B. That said, they are very adept at taking down air defense systems and that will only increase as the F-35 and more advanced UAVs come on-line. Still, in the interim, the Growlers can expect a lot joint tasking orders and training events supporting the USAF. That's OK, we're all on the same team. It would be nice to see 12 to 20 of B-1Bs fully developed as long-range jamming platforms, while still retaining significant strike capability.