The Air Force hasn’t dedicated any of its scarce funding to upgrading the radar and other onboard systems for its fleet of E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System aircraft, says Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. And, that asserts the long-time defense analyst puts in jeopardy the ability of fighter aircraft “to find the enemy.” The Air Force acknowledged earlier this year that it had pushed development of the new radar destined for the now-dead E-10 radar aircraft as far as its 2007 fiscal resource would permit, and it had no wiggle room in its 2008 budget. Thompson has a point that something is off, but we think it’s the topline.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
