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Leaders tell Congress about
new aircraft, missions
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Master Sgt. Scott Elliott
Air Force Print
News
3/20/2003 - WASHINGTON -- The
Air Force's senior leaders presented their vision of the
service's next-generation fighter and a new mission for an old
warhorse to members of Congress on March 19.
Secretary
of the Air Force Dr. James G. Roche and Air Force Chief of
Staff Gen. John P. Jumper briefed members of the House
Appropriations Committee subcommittee on defense on the
progress of the F/A-22 Raptor and discussed a study to bring
an electronic warfare mission to the B-52 Stratofortress.
"The F/A-22 program is improving," Roche said. "It's
currently meeting or exceeding all key performance
requirements and recently delivered our initial production
aircraft to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev."
While the
secretary praised the Raptor for having better radar and being
stealthier than originally planned, he admitted the aircraft
is having some problems with software integration.
"We're down to the problem that will plague every
major weapon system the United States deals with, which is
trying to have enormous amounts of software orchestrated and
working together," he said.
While the problem can be
frustrating, Roche said he is confident it will be resolved.
"It's an issue where you have to slug your way
through," he said, "just as when the B-2 Spirit had a radar
that, at one point, couldn't see through rain. You work your
way through these software issues. We've made good progress in
the lab. Now it's a matter of moving that progress to an
aircraft."
Working the bugs out of the Raptor is
vital, the secretary said, because the F/A-22 is the only
weapon system capable of defending against a cruise missile
attack.
"How do you defend against a
surface-to-surface cruise missile that is stealthy?" Roche
asked the subcommittee members. "It's not a matter of seeing
it. You have to kill it."
According to Roche, the
Raptor's supercruise ability is critical to establish proper
angles of attack and take multiple shots at the target.
"There is no substitute," he said. "The F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter can't do these things -- nothing else can."
A possible innovation for the Air Force inventory is
the addition of an electronic warfare mission to the B-52,
Jumper said.
"Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Verne
Clark and I have talked about expanding the definition of
electronic warfare to beyond just jamming (from) a fighter
platform," the general said.
To complement the Navy's
E/A-6B Prowler, which would accompany strike missions, Jumper
sees a modified B-52 as being the ideal platform for providing
long-term, persistent electronic-warfare coverage.
"The B-52 has an external fuel tank on the wingtip
that is about the size of a small condominium," he said. "You
can fill it with jamming equipment and provide stand-off
jamming capability that can loiter for long periods of time."
Jumper said the new mission would not affect the
B-52's ability to drop bombs.
Such changes for the
B-52 are not new. According to Jumper, the Stratofortress has
undergone three major structural upgrades since it entered the
Air Force inventory in 1954.
"The platform and mission
seem to come together," he said. "We don't know all the
details yet, but that's the nature of what we're looking at.
There's no reason to make the B-52 go away because it's so
productive in our inventory."
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