Boeing announced Wednesday that it supported the Air Force earlier this month in the first powered launch of the Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer from a B-52 bomber. The company said it was a “successful test” over the Gulf of Mexico on the test range at Eglin AFB, Fla. Boeing designed the avionics software onboard the B-52 that controls and launches the Raytheon-built MALD-J, a variant of the MALD baseline decoy that is optimized to loiter or over an area and jam adversaries’ radars. “The software functioned exactly as we designed,” said Scot Oathout, Boeing’s B-52 program director. He added, “This is another great opportunity for the Air Force and Boeing to transform the B-52 and expand its mission from a predominantly offensive role to a more defensive player, defending US and allied aircraft in combat zones.”
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.