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The Navy is engineering a new, more powerful, high-tech electronic warfare Next-Generation
Jammer technology designed to allow strike aircraft and stealth bombers to destroy enemy
targets without being detected by modern surface-to-air missile defenses.
While radar warning receivers are purely defensive technologies, the NGJ is configured with offensive
jamming capabilities in support of stealth bombers and strike aircraft such as an F/A-18
Super Hornet or F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The jammer is intended to preemptively jam enemy radars and protect aircraft by preventing
air defenses from engaging. “With surface-to-air missile systems, we
want to deny that track an engagement opportunity. We try to work with the aircraft to jam“The
whole idea is to get the enemy air defense systems from seeing the strike package. It
does not matter what type of aircraft we are protecting. Our mission is to suppress enemy
air defenses and allow the mission to continue. This is not just designed to allow the aircraft
to survive but also allow it to continue the mission - deliver ordnance and return home,”
Cmdr. Ernest Winston, Electronic Attack Requirements Officer, told Scout Warrior in an interview
last year. The NGJ could be particularly helpful when
it comes to protecting fighter aircraft and stealth platforms like the B-2 bomber, now-in-development
B-21 and the F-35 multi-role stealth fighter. The technology is designed to block, jam,
thwart or “blind” enemy radar systems such as ground-based integrated air defenses
– so as to allow attack aircraft to enter a target area, conduct strikes and then safely
exit. This is useful in today’s modern environment
because radar-evading stealth configurations, by themselves, are no longer as dominant or
effective against current and emerging air-defense technologies.
Today’s modern air defenses, such as the Russian-made S-300 and multi-function S-400
surface-to-air missiles, are increasingly able to detect stealth aircraft at longer
distances and on a wider range of frequencies. Today’s most cutting edge systems, and those
being engineered for the future, use much faster computer processors, use more digital
technology and network more to one another. The NGJ is engineered to jam and defeat both
surveillance radar technology which can alert defenses that an enemy aircraft is in the
area as well as higher-frequency “engagement” radar which allow air defenses to target,
track and destroy attacking aircraft. “The target engagement radar or control
radar has a very narrow scope, so enemy defenses are trying to search the sky. We are making
enemies search the sky looking through a soda straw. When the only aperture of the world
is through a soda straw, we can force them into a very narrow scope so they will never
see aircraft going in to deliver ordnance,” Winston said.
Winston would not elaborate on whether the NGJ’s offensive strike capabilities would
allow it to offensively attack enemy radio communications, antennas or other kinds of
electronic signals. “It can jam anything that emits or receives
and RF frequency in the frequency range of NGJ -- it could jam anything that is RF capable,”
he explained. NGJ consists of two 15-foot long PODs beneath
the EA-18G Growler aircraft designed to emit radar-jamming electronic signals; one jammer
goes on each side of the aircraft. Radar technology sends an electromagnetic ping forward, bouncing
it off objects before analyzing the return signal to determine a target's location, size,
shape and speed...etc. However, if the electromagnetic signal is interfered with, thwarted or "jammed"
in some way, the system is then unable to detect the objects, or target, in the same
way. “It is able to jam multiple frequencies
at the same time -- more quickly and more efficiently,” he said.
The emerging system uses a high-powered radar technology called Active Electronic Scanned
Array, or AESA. “It will be the only AESA-based carrier
offensive electronic attack jamming pod it DoD. What it is really going to bring to the
fleet is increased power, increased flexibility and more capacity to jam more radars at one
time,” Winston added. The NGJ, slated to be operational by 2021,
is intended to replace the existing ALQ 99 electronic warfare jammer currently on Navy
Growler aircraft. The new jammer is designed to interfere with
ground-and-air based threats such as enemy air defenses trying to get a missile "lock"
on a target. One of the drawbacks to ALQ 99 is that it
was initially designed 40-years ago and is challenged to keep up with modern threats
and digital threats with phased array radars, increased power, increased processing and
more advanced wave forms, Winston explained. The Next-Generation Jammer is being engineered
with what’s called “open architecture,” meaning it is built with open computing software
and hardware standards such that it can quickly integrate new technologies as threats emerge.
For example, threat libraries or data-bases incorporated into a radar warning receiver
can inform pilots of specific threats such as enemy fighter aircraft or air defenses.
If new adversary aircraft become operational, the system can be upgraded to incorporate
that information. “We use threat libraries in our receivers
as well as our jammers to be able to jam the new threat radars. As new threats emerge,
we will be able to devise new jamming techniques. Those are programmable through the mission
planning system through the mission planning system of the EA-18G Growler,” Winston explained.
“Multi-function radars become much more difficult because you have a single radar
source that is doing almost everything with phased array capability. However, with the
increased power of the next-generation jammer we can go after those,” Winston said.It
is a constant cat and mouse game between the shooter and the strike aircraft. We develop
stealth and they develop counter-stealth technologies. We then counter it with increased jamming
capabilities.” The U.S. Navy previously awarded Raytheon
Company a $1 billion sole source contract for Engineering and Manufacturing Development
(EMD) for Increment 1 of the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), the advanced electronic attack
technology that combines high-powered, agile, beam-jamming techniques with cutting-edge,
solid-state electronics,” a Raytheon statement said.
Raytheon will deliver 15 Engineering Development Model pods for mission systems testing and
qualification, and 14 aeromechanical pods for airworthiness certification.
The NGJ contract also covers designing and delivering simulators and prime hardware to
government labs and support for flight testing and government system integration, Raytheon
officials said. Overall, the Navy plans to buy as many as
135 sets of NGJs for the Growler. At the same time, Winston did say it is possible that
the NGJ will be integrated onto other aircraft in the future.
"This is a significant milestone for electronic warfare," said Rick Yuse, president of Raytheon
Space and Airborne Systems. "NGJ is a smart pod that provides today's most advanced electronic
attack technology, one that can easily be adapted to changing threat environments. That
level of sophistication provides our warfighters with the technological advantage required
to successfully prosecute their mission and return home safely."