{"id":15935,"date":"2019-02-06T22:28:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T22:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/02\/06\/the-air-forces-jstars-alternative-has-a-new-architect-wait-whats-an-architect\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:33:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:33:37","slug":"the-air-forces-jstars-alternative-has-a-new-architect-wait-whats-an-architect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/02\/06\/the-air-forces-jstars-alternative-has-a-new-architect-wait-whats-an-architect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Air Force\u2019s JSTARS alternative has a new architect. Wait, what\u2019s an architect?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force has found an architect to run its uber-complicated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2018\/02\/22\/heres-what-we-know-about-the-air-forces-alternative-to-the-jstars-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\">Advanced Battle Management System program<\/a>, which will replace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2018\/02\/10\/air-force-to-kill-jstars-recap-program-for-new-battlefield-management-plane\/\" target=\"_blank\">JSTARS ground surveillance planes<\/a> with a network of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2018\/01\/09\/gao-dismisses-raytheons-jstars-recap-protest-cementing-northrop-as-radar-provider\/\" target=\"_blank\">existing and new air- and space-based sensors<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will Roper, the service\u2019s top acquisition official, isn\u2019t willing to reveal who will come onboard in March to oversee the program. But he believes the program will be able to sprint forward after the new official begins work, he told reporters during a Feb. 6 roundtable.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/07\/24\/jstars-recap-is-officially-dead\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3577892.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">JSTARS recap is officially dead<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The 2019 defense policy bill hands the Air Force a big win.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I hope that I will be able to tell you into the summer that we&#8217;ve kicked off some detailed analyses and prototyping efforts and that we&#8217;ve pulled in technology from places like our research labs and [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency], pulled out all the stops to make this work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About a year ago, the Air Force announced its plans to cancel its JSTARS replacement program and pursue a system-of-systems approach it called Advanced Battle Management System or ABMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The near-term version of the concept revolved around sustaining the current E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System planes and upgrading existing platforms like the MQ-9 Reaper and E-3 AWACS early warning aircraft with tech that would increase its interoperability. Later increments of the effort, which have been briefed to Congress, could involve classified or still-emerging technologies, but the Air Force has not fully defined the final system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Roper thinks ABMS will involve space-based tech; traditional air-based sensors like those on the legacy JSTARS, AWACS and Reaper; attritable systems \u2014 low cost, disposable drones could fit this description \u2014 and communications links between those systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the early stages of the program, the Air Force will likely conduct four separate prototyping efforts to see how quickly industry can mature emerging technologies, he said. The architect won\u2019t be in charge of leading any one of those efforts. Instead, he or she will ensure that all requirements are being met, making certain that if \u2014 for instance \u2014 an air-based system becomes too expensive or challenging to continue developing, other technologies can fill the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The thing that we don&#8217;t know is what can the industry base do in each one of those areas. Can we really do in space, or not so well? Can we do really well in the air, or not so well?\u201d Roper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Maybe the right solution is heavy space, light air. Maybe it&#8217;s heavy air, light space, but we need someone between the program and the mission or else we&#8217;ll have to prematurely pick where we are in that tradespace without a lot of information to back it up.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Traditionally, military weapons programs are managed by a single program executive, but ABMS could involve many existing programs and program managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force sees the ABMS architect as key to avoid creating one massive acquisition effort out of disparate programs like Reaper or the legacy JSTARS fleet. If the model is successful, Roper believes it could be used as a basis for managing similar programs in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, progress hasn\u2019t exactly been rapid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past year, the Air Force has started an analysis of alternatives and brokered some agreements with research laboratories to kick start the development of key technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis has been a slower start than I would like,\u201d Roper acknowledged. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to speed up after we get our architect on board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prototyping efforts for the uber complicated program could begin as early as this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"},"9":{"categories":["isr","intel-geoint","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"isr"}}},"categories":[7,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-15935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"Q532WQIM6JFW7PYKPHFDTTYWN4","arc_canonical_url":"\/2019\/02\/06\/the-air-forces-jstars-alternative-has-a-new-architect-wait-whats-an-architect\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Air Force\u2019s JSTARS alternative has a new architect. 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