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The last sortie of a Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System took off in 2023. Since then, no successor has come forward to take up the vacancy left on the flightline by the unique Boeing 707 and its arsenal of surveillance sensors. In fact, it is very likely that no aircraft will ever truly inherit the mission as the United States Air Force has evolved to what it calls the Advanced Battle Management System.
Under ABMS, no one platform will contain a high concentration of ‘exquisite’ intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. Instead, the entire joint force will share target data over the ‘combat cloud’ through a distributed ‘kill web.’ The disaggregated sensor network provides survivability and resilience, and through an advanced data link, is far superior in terms of battle space awareness than the JSTARS could have ever achieved by itself.
The Sunset Of JSTARS
The JSTARS represented a major milestone in battlefield command and control when it made its maiden flight in 1988. Just 17 jets were outfitted with unique radar ‘canoes’ on the bottom of the fuselage. This array could scan a vast swath of terrain and produce precise target data for the joint data-link network on a scale that no other platform could match. Despite its exceptional performance for decades, the Air Force canceled its JSTARS recapitalization program and shifted funding to ABMS.
The evolution of air warfare in the 21st century has made it clear that exceptionally high-value assets represent just as much risk to the combined arms force as they provide value. This has been especially highlighted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the joint US and Israeli operation Epic Fury earlier this year. In both conflicts, the larger force suffered disproportionate losses in terms of crewed aircraft to drones and inexpensive munitions. ABMS provides greater survivability in an environment like this and in a near-peer adversary conflict.
On the other side of the spectrum, the US military is ‘pivoting to the Pacific’ with a bolstered defense posture to counter the People’s Republic of China. For years, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force has been developing standoff munitions and stealth aircraft to destroy the US and its allies’ command and control platforms, like the JSTARS.
The Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon is specifically made to bypass US and allied fighter jets and shoot down C2 planes as well as other high-value targets like tankers. By distributing sensors across every platform, ABMS also greatly reduces the risk in the scenario. As Air and Space Forces magazine recounted, the JSTARS simply could not survive this kind of conflict and one official even said “They’d be gone in a minute.”
The Air Force Of The Future
During a conflict, a commander needs to know what is happening across thousands of miles. The goal of ABMS is to create a secure, military internet that connects every sensor, satellite, drone, aircraft, ship, and soldier instantly. ABMS drastically cuts the time from the ‘sensor to the shooter,’ eliminating the human in the loop and directly interconnecting the systems on hundreds or thousands of platforms across the battle space. Superior hardware combined with cloud-based computing in the land, air, sea, space, and even cyber domains greatly surpasses the JSTARS capability.
The retired E-8C JSTARS did everything on one plane. It used its onboard radar to find targets and its onboard crew to direct friendly forces. ABMS breaks that apart completely. Under ABMS, a space-based satellite might find the target, an artificial intelligence algorithm in the cloud will analyze it, and a commander sitting thousands of miles away can direct the strike. If one part of that network is destroyed, the rest of the web continues to function.
The Air Force is invested in Cloud One, which will provide a secure multi-level cloud computing environment that hosts data from every service branch in the US Armed Forces. This will not only combine ISR data from every connected unit into a single digital ‘picture’ of the battlefield but also allow stealth aircraft to target adversaries without revealing their positions by using onboard equipment. This provides another major tactical advantage to planes like the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor or F-35 Lightning II in both near-peer and asymmetric conflict.
Transitioning From Joint Command To Combined C2
While JSTARS was an Air Force asset built to pass specific radar data to nearby ground forces, ABMS is designed as the foundational architecture for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control. ABMS operates on a universal digital data layer designed to bridge the gaps between the distinct modernization projects of each military branch. Going a step further, international partners do not need to have the exact same hardware as US forces in order to collaborate through ABMS thanks to open architecture and common data standards.
As a far-reaching program under the Department of Defense, ABMS goes beyond just the Air Force. The US Army is pushing ahead with Project Convergence, which also includes collaboration with the Armed Forces of Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Simultaneously, the Navy’s Project Overmatch reached a major milestone in late 2025 as a formal project arrangement with the Five Eyes partners was formalized. The FVEY alliance includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.
Ultimately, the Pentagon’s goal is to pave the way for an unprecedented level of real-time data sharing between combat units to maximize information dominance. Will Roper, former assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics, told Air and Space Forces magazine in 2021:
“ABMS will be able to perform the mission sets associated with both the JSTARS and AWACS platforms and possibly assume other roles of the Theater Air Control System.”
This ecosystem of sensors, fusion, and data transfer networks is made possible by artificial intelligence and cloud-based processing, but there is still the potential for a future airborne platform to take up a reinvented role that might ‘spiritually’ succeed the JSTARS. That aircraft is the upcoming Boom Supersonic Overture airliner that aims to achieve quiet supersonic flight for passenger airlines. Its development is still in the early stages, but the company has received significant funding from the Air Force and is performing joint research with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and NASA.
The Potential Of Supersonic Surveillance
An Overture-based ABMS node would be a high-speed digital bridge that operates at the edge of the battle zone. Because it flies at Mach 1.7 at 60,000 feet, it can do things a slow commercial airliner or a low-orbit satellite simply cannot do. Satellites are locked in predictable orbits, and subsonic drone networks take hours to reposition. If a sudden conflict erupts or an electronic warfare ‘blind spot’ opens up over a critical area, a Mach 1.7 Overture can sprint to the scene.
A C2 variant of the Overture would act as a rapid-response node, flying high and fast to project a massive communications umbrella over a newly contested area before the enemy can exploit chaos. And even if it’s not the first airplane on the scene, it can directly support next-gen stealth fighters or bombers thanks to its speed and altitude. The Overture can keep up with the fighters but also orbit at a standoff distance that keeps it safe from threats but allows its electronics to dramatically expand the situational awareness of the ‘shooters’ on the front line.
Fighter jets have excellent sensors but limited computing power onboard, linked to their small size and combat-focused design. Overture presents a game-changing recapitalization of the JSTARS mission for a 21st-century application. An Overture C2 aircraft may not be stealthy, but with a shield of allied platforms to protect it, the plane can flee surprise threats from an aircraft like a J-20 once detected. Meanwhile, its high and fast flight profile would make it virtually invulnerable to inexpensive drone threats.
A System Of Systems At 60,000 Feet
Next-gen platforms of the USAF and every other advanced air force combine numerous advanced technologies into a ‘system of systems’ which integrates with ABMS and other equivalents around the globe. The US and its allies are working on assembling a comprehensive network that could encircle the entire planet to provide instantaneous coverage to a conflict anywhere it erupts, at any time. To support the latest and greatest crewed aircraft, there will be a massive fleet of thousands of advanced ‘loyal wingman drones.’
The US Air Force alone aims to procure at least 1,000 collaborative combat aircraft, while Europe and partners in the Indo-Pacific theater are assembling their own fleets. Australia has already designated the Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat as its CCA to fly alongside the F-35A Joint Strike Fighters of the Royal Australian Air Force. In the US, the Anduril YFQ-44A Fury and the General Atomics YFQ-42A Dark Merlin are entering low-rate production, with operational examples expected in the near future.
A Boom Overture packed with rows of server racks inside connects as a kind of mothership to support this future fleet of advanced combat drones. While strike platforms like the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider handle mission tasking for CCAs in contested airspace, the Overture can perform a similar role in permissive skies at a fraction of the cost. Stealth aircraft like the B-21 and next-gen fighters are incredibly expensive to fly per hour, and their specialized radar-absorbent coatings require intense, costly maintenance after every flight.
The Overture, built for commercial airline utilization, is designed to fly multiple times a day with rapid turnaround times and much lower maintenance costs per flight hour. One of the reasons the JSTARS became uneconomical was its unique, aging parts. Because the Overture will be operated by global commercial airlines, it will have an active, hot production line for engines, landing gear, and structural components. It could theoretically be a major force enhancement by performing monotonous ‘network building’ missions, allowing the stealth fleet to stay parked until it is time to strike.
