Electronic Warfare: Radar Jammer Proliferation Continues: Nsiad-92-83 - Paperback

by U. S. Government Accountability Office ( (Created by)

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether Navy and Air Force radar jammer programs were consistent with the congressional goal of reducing electronic warfare system proliferation.
GAO found that: (1) rather than promoting the use of a common jammer, the Navy and Air Force spent approximately $9 billion to use, procure, or upgrade 12 different self-protection jammers and 2 separate mission support jammers to protect tactical aircraft against common threats; (2) the Air Force has procured different jammer systems to protect the same aircraft; (3) although the Department of Defense (DOD) planned to save an estimated $1.2 billion by designating the Airborne Self-Protection Jammer as the common jammer for both Air Force and Navy aircraft, DOD did not realize that goal since the Air Force withdrew from the program, citing poor test results, congressional restrictions on full-rate production, and high program costs; (4) the Air Force and Navy are spending $726 million and $1.3 billion, respectively, to separately upgrade various components of the ALQ-99 mission support jammer; (5) ineffective DOD oversight of Air Force and Navy jammer upgrade programs has resulted in jammer proliferation; and (6) although DOD has developed a congressionally mandated electronic warfare master plan, the plan cannot be used to achieve commonality among jammers since it only lists systems that the services plan to acquire or upgrade, and lacks commonality provisions.