Gates orders Air Force and Navy to study joint weapons system: report

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered the Air Force and Navy to study what future joint weapons system, available 20 years from now, will be able to surveil an enemy target, survive any electronic interference, and then deliver precision strikes from platforms that either penetrate the foe's defenses or are launched from a distance.
That study's results will help Gates shape the Pentagon's requests for funding in the global strike area beginning with the 2012 budget, according to a draft of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), the final version of which will be released Monday. The congressionally mandated review, done every four years, "clarifies the secretary's priorities" and communicates his "intent for the next several years of the department's work," according to the document.
The QDR lays out both short- and long-term goals in strategic areas that relate to weaponry but also refer to establishment and maintenance of U.S. bases abroad that involve broader national security policies.
Nations such as China, Iran and North Korea have sophisticated air defense systems that could defeat U.S. manned and unmanned aircraft, and the QDR describes an Air Force and Navy initiative to develop a joint battle concept "to defeat adversaries equipped with anti-access and aerial denial capabilities."
In the weapons field, the QDR talks of expanding the capability of a new Virginia-class nuclear submarine with long-range cruise missiles, and of pressing ahead with the Navy's unmanned combat aerial system, being worked on jointly with the Air Force. The latter is a fighter-size, carrier-launched unmanned vehicle that can be refueled in flight. It would provide intelligence and go on strike missions before returning to the carrier. The goal is to begin flight testing this year and get delivery of the first operational unit in 2015.
Studies are looking also at defensive and offensive advances in the electronic warfare field to protect U.S. weapons systems and disable those of enemies, in space, air or on land. The QDR says that "to counter the spread of advanced surveillance, air defense and strike systems, the department has directed increased investment in selected capabilities for electronic attack."