Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
Pressure is mounting to restore the Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint-STARS) programme to a 19-aircraft purchase, as two of the four aircraft now in service support the air campaign over Yugoslavia.
The Quadrennial Defense Review in 1997 cut six units from US Department of Defense plans, limiting it to 13 aircraft. A fourteenth - which tracks moving ground targets - was included in the fiscal year 2000 budget request. Senior US Air Force officials say they will seek more Joint-STARS until 19 aircraft are in service. Northrop Grumman is already funded for development of updates to the radar.
Joint-STARS numbers were cut in response to NATO plans to purchase six to 12 aircraft to satisfy its Airborne Ground Surveillance (AGS) requirement. The alliance has still to decide on system type and funding.
The UK is also close to a decision on buying a small number of ground surveillance aircraft.
US lawmakers are debating the doubling of the Clinton Administration's proposed $6 billion Kosovo emergency supplemental bill to accelerate weapons purchases, including Joint-STARS.
Meanwhile, nine former senior US military commanders are urging defence secretary William Cohen either to promote an AGS solution fully compatible with Joint-STARS or to consider further US production. They note that the Joint-STARS cut assumed a NATO purchase.
"Thirteen Joint-STARS is not enough to support prosecution of two nearly simultaneous major theatre wars in the absence of similar capabilities provided by allies. Moreover, the alternatives being pursued by allies appear unlikely to provide systems fully interoperable with Joint-STARS," they say.
Source: Flight International
