St. Louis, Aug. 29, 2005 -- Boeing [NYSE:BA] and BAE Systems have combined their B-52 and electronic warfare expertise to offer the U.S. Air Force a highly qualified team to execute the B-52 Stand-Off Jammer (SOJ) program.
"It takes a highly experienced electronic warfare integrator, along with the B-52 platform expert to deliver the maximum benefits of an effects-based, electronic attack capability," said Pat Finneran, vice president and general manager of Boeing's Logistics Support Systems. "The Boeing/BAE Systems team provides both. We have the vision and capability to deliver multi-platform electronic combat battle management for the Air Force's Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) system of systems."
"Our team will leverage experience from major development and integration responsibilities on all key AEA programs," said Mike Heffron, president of BAE Systems' Information Warfare line of business.
The Air Force plans to make the B-52 an integral part of its AEA plan, by fitting the aircraft with simultaneous jamming, decoy and strike capabilities. The Air Force is expected to award the pre-System Development and Demonstration contract this fall. The B-52 SOJ program is estimated to be fully operational by 2012.
Finneran and Heffron detailed several distinct advantages of the Boeing/BAE Systems' best value solution for the war fighter:
- The team's electronic battle management and multi-vehicle command and control algorithms and software, which are also supporting all teams for the E-10A and Joint-Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS), provide a highly leveraged, cost effective integrated electronic warfare node within the AEA System of Systems. The system will counter the integrated air defense systems of today, enabling the Air Force's Information Dominance vision.
- The team's direct involvement on other major electronic warfare development programs like the B-52, EA-18G, J-UCAS, Compass Call, F/A-22, and F-35 ensures in-depth understanding of the evolving Airborne Electronic Attack concept of operations, warfighter needs, and B-52H SOJ mission expectations.
- The team understands relevant technologies such as networking electronic attack, electronic surveillance and data distribution.
- The team's modular, scalable approach is tailored for B-52 SOJ requirements.
The Boeing/BAE Systems solution provides integrated receivers, jamming pods with pre-emptive and selective reactive jamming techniques, and mission-management software for the Stand-Off Jammer mission. The team's approach will meet the customer's needs on four critical interfaces: Stand-off jammer system integration; systems integration on the B-52 platform; addressing the human/crew interface and, ultimately, successful integration within the Air Force's AEA systems of systems. It will be achieved without degrading current weapons carriage capability.