Congress Pushes For More Air Force EC-37 Electronic Warfare Jets
A proposed bump in defense spending includes money to allow the Air Force to replace its EC-130H jamming aircraft on a one-for-one basis.
BY
JOSEPH TREVITHICK
JUN 22, 2022 10:23 PM
The U.S. Air Force could be looking at an important boost to its future aerial electronic warfare capabilities after members of the U.S. House of Representatives moved to add $37 billion to the proposed defense budget for the 2023 Fiscal Year earlier today. This added spending plan includes $883.7 million to acquire four more EC-37B Compass Call electronic warfare jets, which would bring the planned fleet of these planes to 14. This would equate to a one-for-one replacement of the existing EC-130H Compass Call aircraft.
The House Armed Services Committee voted 42 to 17 today to include the proposed $37 billion spending package, which Maine Representative Jared Golden had put forward in an amendment, in a new draft of the annual policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2023 Fiscal Year. You can read more about what else was contained in the Golden Amendment here.
At the time of writing, representatives are still discussing and voting on various other amendments to the proposed Fiscal Year 2023 NDAA, which then need to be formally voted on a whole before it can advance further in the legislative process. This bill would still then need to be reconciled with companion legislation being worked on in the Senate before it could be put to a full vote in Congress, and then, if passed, sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/congress-pushes-for-more-air-force-ec-37-electronic-warfare-jets
