"One of the big promises of the new Pentagon defense budget is to "protect investments in key technology areas and new capabilities" despite congressional funding pressures. Sift through the details of the massive research budget for the military's tech wish list and some of those priorities become clear: jamming, non-lethal weaponry, and gear for special-operations forces, to name a few.
One of the biggest winners in Pentagon research cash is the Next-Generation Jammer, a Navy effort to build a super-advanced aircraft pod for disrupting adversary communications. The jammer, which is anticipated to send malicious code into enemy computer networks as well as remotely detonating homemade bombs, is the recipient of a big cash infusion: the Navy's boosting research funding for it to $258 USD million from $167 USD million.
The Navy doesn't expect to actually buy the new jammers until after 2019, said Rear Adm. Joseph Malloy, a top Navy budget official. Until then, the Navy's jamming jets, the EA-18G Growler — another big winner in the Pentagon's new budget — will retain the same ALQ-99 jammer pods they currently use.
Around the same time as the Next-Generation Jammer is expected to come online, the Navy hopes to have another advanced technology roaming the seas: the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System, a killer drone that can launch from an aircraft carrier. The demonstrator model for the program, the X-47B, is prepping for a May takeoff at sea aboard the USS George H.W. Bush, and the Navy just announced that it wants to pick the drone's ultimate airframe. So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that the Navy is asking for an additional $24 USD million in research cash for what will be the most advanced drone known to man (or machine)…"
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