The Navy Vol_73_No_4 Oct 2011 - Navy League of Australia
The Navy Vol_73_No_4 Oct 2011 - Navy League of Australia The Navy Vol_73_No_4 Oct 2011 - Navy League of Australia
Electronic Resurgence The US Navysharpens focus on dominating theelectronic battlespace *By Richard R. BurgessThe USN is pushing ahead with a renewed emphasis on electronic warfare and has begun to recapitalise itsfleet-wide tactical electronic surveillance and jamming capabilities to maintain its advantage over newersystems and missile seekers coming onto the market.USN AIRBORNE EW“Technology today is exploding all around us and there are hugeleaps in technological capabilities that could be turned into weaponssystems,” said Rear Adm. Sean R. Filipowski, director of cyber,sensors and electronic warfare in the Office of the Chief of US NavalOperations.The US Navy has begun a technology maturation phase in its effort todevelop the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) — an airborne electronicattack system designed to replace the current ALQ-99 tactical jammingsystem — and is moving further in the Surface Electronic WarfareImprovement Program (SEWIP), a phased approach to upgrade theSLQ-32, the Navy’s primary surface ship electronic warfare system.The ALQ-99, initially fielded in the early 1970s with considerablesuccess during the Vietnam War, has been progressively upgraded tothe Improved Capabilities III (ICAP III) configuration currently installedon EA-18G Growler and 32 EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft.“We’ve really reached the end of our rope when it comes to thearchitecture of the ALQ-99,” said Capt. John Green, the US Navy’sprogram manager for airborne electronic attack and the EA-6B. “It’san outstanding system and continues to be effective, particularly inasymmetric warfare that we’re seeing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Butwhen you look at some of the peer competitor warfare scenarios, it islosing its effectiveness. There are just limitations of the architectureitself where we need to move on to something that is a lot morecapable.”“The [NGJ] will not just help us meet today’s threats, but it will helpus face tomorrow’s threats,” Filipowski said. “The [NGJ] is beingdesigned as a flexible system that will give us the opportunitiesto operate in any environment that we would be tasked to operatein, from fighting pirates potentially all the way on through a majorcontingency operation.”The ALQ-218 receiver, which intercepts the radar signals for the ALQ-99 to jam, “is really state of the art,” Green said. “But we’ve got to pairit up with a [new] tactical jamming system in order for it to be capableagainst the evolving threats.”In November, the US Navy decided to integrate the NGJ onto the EA-18G aircraft first, anticipating that the jammer will be an externallymounted podded system, Green said. The NGJ later will be integratedin the US Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II strike fighter as an externalpod system, at least initially, in order to field the capability soonerthan would be the case with an internally mounted system.“Doing things conformal or anything that’s internal drives a lot ofThe current mainstay of the USN’s airborne EW capability is the EA-6B Prowler, seen herebeing launched from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This Prowler is carrying three long rangefuel tanks and two ALQ-99 EW pods. (USN)12 THE NAVY VOL. 73 NO. 4
costs, especially for a jammer, where you’ve got to have a significantfield of view for it to do its job,” Green said, adding that the NGJ isbeing considered for the A and C versions of the F-35 as well.The NGJ is not yet officially a program of record, Green said, but isbeing treated like one.“We try to gather a lot of data and developmental experience of asystem before we actually call it a program of record,” he said, notingthat the effort likely will make the transition to one in early 2015.US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, speaking to reporters on Jan.6, said the Department of Defense plans to reinvest funds saved fromreducing overhead costs on developing next-generation electronicwarfare capabilities.The USN allocated a total of US$24 million to four industry teams —BAE Systems, ITT/Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon — twoyears ago to study options for an NGJ. A subsequent open-competitiontechnology maturation phase followed, with US$168 million splitamong the same four teams for further development.One of the challenges of developing electronic warfare systems is thelack of a commercial market for such systems to leverage for militarydevelopment.“It takes a grassroots effort to mature technologies that don’t find alot of other uses,” Green said.The USN is looking to increase its jamming power with the NGJ.“Power is life when you’re a jammer and,particularly, a standoff jammer like this thatdoesn’t go deep in the threat envelopes,”Green said. “Staying outside the standoffdistance demands more power. We also wantto do some smart things with the jammer thatwe’re not able to do with the ALQ-99 becauseof some architecture constraints, like beingable to jam coherent radars [and] being ableto adjust polarization more responsively.”Green explained that “coherent radars areradars that have a very specific pulse train.If we can use a very similar pulse train, thenwe have a much more effective jammingresponse than we would otherwise get.”Regarding polarization, Green said thejammer needs to match up with the actualwave-form of the radar, noting that “if we don’t match up with thatwell, then our jamming, in some cases, could be 100 percent out ofsync.”Northrop Grumman built the EA-6B and integrated the ALQ-99 systemin the EA-18G, the first platform for the future NGJ.“Integration with the aircraft is a complex process that ensures we arebalancing both the jammer performance and the aircraft performanceto maximize their mutual benefit,” said Tom Stavropoulos, managerof the NGJ campaign for Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace SystemsDivision in the US.Key among the needs for the NGJ are number of simultaneous jambeams, higher effective radiated power, field of view, advancedmodulations and polarization control within the size, weight and powerconstraints, he said, noting that the technologies required to providethose capabilities included “advanced power generation, apertures,beam formers, exciters and amplifiers.“Each of these requirements drives specific solutions that havesignificant impacts on component selection, packaging into thejammer pods and the integration of those pods with the variousaircraft types to create effective airborne electronic attack (AEA)systems,” Stavropoulos said.He said that, unlike the EA-18G, the F-35B, with only a pilot, willoperate without an onboard electronic countermeasures operator.Stravopoulos said his team “will incorporate additional technologyA USN EF-18F Growler EW aircraft. The Growler is already starting to replace the EA-6B in the fleet however,it is suffering from having to use the older ALQ-99EW pod technology. (USN)The venerable ALQ-99 EW pod. Soon to be replaced. (USN)solutions that will accommodate more automationor off-board control of the information necessary tomission tasking.”The Navy is requiring a modular, open-system approach(MOSA) for the NGJ, and Stravopoulos stressed that inorder to maintain MOSA flexibility in the future, “keenengineering discipline and keen insight into the typesof technologies needed” will be needed during the lifecycle of the NGJ.“MOSA, combined with components that are softwarereprogrammable and multifunctional, will allow NGJto be very responsive to a wide range of missionrequirements,” he said. “Second, it will minimize theneed for hardware changes to meet the future threats,THE NAVY VOL. 73 NO. 4 13
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costs, especially for a jammer, where you’ve got to have a significantfield <strong>of</strong> view for it to do its job,” Green said, adding that the NGJ isbeing considered for the A and C versions <strong>of</strong> the F-35 as well.<strong>The</strong> NGJ is not yet <strong>of</strong>ficially a program <strong>of</strong> record, Green said, but isbeing treated like one.“We try to gather a lot <strong>of</strong> data and developmental experience <strong>of</strong> asystem before we actually call it a program <strong>of</strong> record,” he said, notingthat the effort likely will make the transition to one in early 2015.US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, speaking to reporters on Jan.6, said the Department <strong>of</strong> Defense plans to reinvest funds saved fromreducing overhead costs on developing next-generation electronicwarfare capabilities.<strong>The</strong> USN allocated a total <strong>of</strong> US$24 million to four industry teams —BAE Systems, ITT/Boeing, <strong>No</strong>rthrop Grumman and Raytheon — twoyears ago to study options for an NGJ. A subsequent open-competitiontechnology maturation phase followed, with US$168 million splitamong the same four teams for further development.One <strong>of</strong> the challenges <strong>of</strong> developing electronic warfare systems is thelack <strong>of</strong> a commercial market for such systems to leverage for militarydevelopment.“It takes a grassroots effort to mature technologies that don’t find alot <strong>of</strong> other uses,” Green said.<strong>The</strong> USN is looking to increase its jamming power with the NGJ.“Power is life when you’re a jammer and,particularly, a stand<strong>of</strong>f jammer like this thatdoesn’t go deep in the threat envelopes,”Green said. “Staying outside the stand<strong>of</strong>fdistance demands more power. We also wantto do some smart things with the jammer thatwe’re not able to do with the ALQ-99 because<strong>of</strong> some architecture constraints, like beingable to jam coherent radars [and] being ableto adjust polarization more responsively.”Green explained that “coherent radars areradars that have a very specific pulse train.If we can use a very similar pulse train, thenwe have a much more effective jammingresponse than we would otherwise get.”Regarding polarization, Green said thejammer needs to match up with the actualwave-form <strong>of</strong> the radar, noting that “if we don’t match up with thatwell, then our jamming, in some cases, could be 100 percent out <strong>of</strong>sync.”<strong>No</strong>rthrop Grumman built the EA-6B and integrated the ALQ-99 systemin the EA-18G, the first platform for the future NGJ.“Integration with the aircraft is a complex process that ensures we arebalancing both the jammer performance and the aircraft performanceto maximize their mutual benefit,” said Tom Stavropoulos, manager<strong>of</strong> the NGJ campaign for <strong>No</strong>rthrop Grumman’s Aerospace SystemsDivision in the US.Key among the needs for the NGJ are number <strong>of</strong> simultaneous jambeams, higher effective radiated power, field <strong>of</strong> view, advancedmodulations and polarization control within the size, weight and powerconstraints, he said, noting that the technologies required to providethose capabilities included “advanced power generation, apertures,beam formers, exciters and amplifiers.“Each <strong>of</strong> these requirements drives specific solutions that havesignificant impacts on component selection, packaging into thejammer pods and the integration <strong>of</strong> those pods with the variousaircraft types to create effective airborne electronic attack (AEA)systems,” Stavropoulos said.He said that, unlike the EA-18G, the F-35B, with only a pilot, willoperate without an onboard electronic countermeasures operator.Stravopoulos said his team “will incorporate additional technologyA USN EF-18F Growler EW aircraft. <strong>The</strong> Growler is already starting to replace the EA-6B in the fleet however,it is suffering from having to use the older ALQ-99EW pod technology. (USN)<strong>The</strong> venerable ALQ-99 EW pod. Soon to be replaced. (USN)solutions that will accommodate more automationor <strong>of</strong>f-board control <strong>of</strong> the information necessary tomission tasking.”<strong>The</strong> <strong>Navy</strong> is requiring a modular, open-system approach(MOSA) for the NGJ, and Stravopoulos stressed that inorder to maintain MOSA flexibility in the future, “keenengineering discipline and keen insight into the types<strong>of</strong> technologies needed” will be needed during the lifecycle <strong>of</strong> the NGJ.“MOSA, combined with components that are s<strong>of</strong>twarereprogrammable and multifunctional, will allow NGJto be very responsive to a wide range <strong>of</strong> missionrequirements,” he said. “Second, it will minimize theneed for hardware changes to meet the future threats,THE NAVY VOL. <strong>73</strong> NO. 4 13
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