The Air Force has created the Electronic Warfare Life Cycle Management Group to corral research, development, and evaluation of potential EW capabilities, according to a June 20 release. Some have criticized the Air Force for not stepping out with plans for a new EW platform, when the US military is facing an acknowledged gap in coverage. According to Col. Tim Freeman, co-chairman for this new group, “Air Force electronic warfare has been like an orchestra warming up, and the [new group] will be the conductor that brings it all together.” Earlier this year, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said the service may well resurrect the B-52 in a standoff jammer role, but he said that was not the only or certainly not the “simple” answer. Freeman, who is commander of the 542nd Combat Sustainment Wing at Warner Air Logistics Center in Georgia, said this new group is supposed to eliminate the expense and inefficiency engendered by different organizations often unknowingly working on the same things. He called the work the group will do “the most prolific change in electronic warfare in the Air Force in 30 years.” His co-chair, Col. Robert Schwarze, chief of EW and cyber requirements on the Air Staff, said that the service realized that having 56 electronic warfare systems that use 34 different computer languages is “pretty stupid.”
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.