The Navy Vol_73_No_4 Oct 2011 - Navy League of Australia

ELECTRONIC RESURGENCE . . . CONTINUEDand, finally, it will give the Navy the flexibility to readily acceptupgrades and modifications to meet future challenges.“As the Navy continues to refine the AEA requirements for NGJ andidentify opportunities for both manned and unmanned aircraft as partof the system, the concept of scalability will be crucial,” Stravopoulossaid. “Scalability will allow the NGJ approach to be tailored forintegration into many systems beyond aircraft, such as into bothground and ship platforms. This concept of multiple platformsoperating in a common architecture across the domains of air, landand sea has the potential to revolutionise how we think of electronicattack.“The NGJ is expected to fill the same role as the current ITT/EDOdesignedALQ-99 pod, but with vastly improved capability, suchas increased radiated power, new modern jamming modulationsand the ability to target multiple, geographically separated threatssimultaneously,” said Bob Ferrante, vice president and generalmanager of ITT Electronic Systems’ Airborne Electronic Attackbusiness area. “It is a challenge packaging all this additional capabilityinside a family of fewer distinct pod types. While the complete ALQ-99consisted of a family of 10 different pod types, the NGJ will be housedin as few as three pod types.“For the NGJ to effectively jam enemy airspace, it requires a largeamount of independently generated prime power,” Ferrante said.“This power cannot be siphoned from the Growler. Therefore, creatingsufficient power with a ram-air turbine or other power source is aserious technical challenge.“Broadband electronically steerable arrays will allow the NGJ to targetmultiple threats simultaneously and allow for a near instantaneousmovement of transmit beams. Our solution, which has the advantageof being based on prior technology development performed on behalfof the [Air Force’s] B-52 support jamming program, provides industryleadingcapability in antenna performance.”ITT’s partner, Boeing, brings to the competition “its knowledge ofits EA-18G aircraft and its expertise in pod design and large-scaleA cutaway of the Growler aircraft showing key systems. (Boeing)aircraft systems integration to the EA-18G,” Ferrante said.In mid-2012, the USN expects to select two of the teams to “takethe technologies to the next level and design a whole system andprototype it,” Green said.The teams will conduct a flight and capability demonstration of theirsystems on an aircraft of their choice. The prototype phase is expectedto run approximately 27 months.Green said the initial operational capability of the NGJ is planned for2019.“We’re trying to balance the fact that we want something out thereas soon as possible, but it’s got to be a game-changing-type [of]transformational capability,” he said.“In its lifespan, the ALQ-99 has already survived one platform,” fromthe EA-6B to the EA-18G, Filipowski said. “I would anticipate that the[NGJ] also will, similarly, probably outpace the lifespan of some of theaircraft that it would be integrated with in the long run.”Integration is one of the main challenges for fielding electronic warfarecapabilities in the fleet, and that is not limited to the challenge ofintegrating a system on two or more different platforms.“One of the paradigms that we continue to look at and show a lotof interest in is electronic warfare battle management,” Green said.“We’re realising that we’ve got to better integrate all of the systemsthat we use. We have to really line up the receiver with the jammerand make sure that they work well together.“The same thing goes on in the communications world,” he said.“There are a lot of systems that communicate on the adversary sideand we’ve got to be able to manage and control that spectrum at thetime and place of our choosing so that we have an effective way toassess and deal with those threats.“With this electronic battle management paradigm, we’re looking togo outside of the platform and integrate across a range of systemsto make sure that they’re all working in contour with one another,”Green said.“What this is really about is capabilitiesthat enable us to fight and win in theelectromagnetic spectrum,” Filipowskisaid.USN SURFACE SHIPEW UPGRADESAs part of its renewed focus onelectronic warfare capabilities, theUS Navy is planning further upgradesin its primary surface ship electronicsurveillance and jamming systems,the SLQ-32.As the US Navy prepares for theintroduction of Block 2 of its SurfaceElectronic Warfare ImprovementProgram (SEWIP), a phased approachto upgrade the SLQ-32 the Navy isdeveloping the concepts for Blocks 3and 4 of the SEWIP upgrades.“The Navy has had a resurgencein the [electronic warfare] missionarea, specifically, “said Rear Adm.Sean R. Filipowski. “We’ve begun to14 THE NAVY VOL. 73 NO. 4