September 23, 2020 | International, Naval, C4ISR
Northrop Grumman has revealed the first photograph of a pod for the Next Generation Jammer-Low Band (NGJ-LB) system possibly weeks ahead of a competitive contract award.
The U.S. Navy image released by Northrop shows the full-scale candidate for the NGJ-LB contract during testing inside the Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility's anechoic chamber.
The image reveals a pod with a dimpled outer mold line similar to the ALQ-99 low-band pods, which the winning NGJ-LB design is expected to augment and then replace.
Northrop and rival L3Harris recently completed anechoic chamber testing of both competing NGJ-LB pods while wrapping up the 20-month Demonstration of Existing Technologies phase, which precedes a contract award for the engineering and manufacturing development phase scheduled in November.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has budgeted $3 billion to develop and build the NGJ-LB pods over the life of the program.
Each pod will be integrated on the Boeing EA-18G aircraft. The low-band pods will complement the Raytheon NGJ-Mid-band pods now in early production. NAVAIR also has expressed long-term interest in a new high-band pod.
March 3, 2023 | International, Land
Rheinmetall's Castings business unit has won an order in the lower double-digit million-euro range for e-truck parts, the German industrial group said in a statement on Friday.
February 1, 2024 | International, Aerospace
The Crew-9 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, designed to shuttle workers to and from the International Space Station.
February 16, 2018 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
Airbus has revealed that it is exploring the introduction of military derivatives of the A320neo family. Speaking at the Singapore air show, Fernando Alonso, head of military aircraft at Airbus Defence & Space, said that the new platform could undertake missions such as VIP transport, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and maritime patrol. "We have the knowledge of converting the A330 into the A330 MRTT [multirole tanker transport], and have a more efficient process." Alonso says that the efficiency of new-generation engines will enable a more capable military derivative. Any future conversion will require between "six to eight months" to complete, he says. Airbus is in talks with a number of operators, including the armed forces of Asia-Pacific nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, alongside European stalwarts France, Germany and the Netherlands. The airframer is also working to add new capabilities to its existing military platforms: the A400M, A330 MRTT and C295. It will allow A400M operators to drop up to 60 paratroopers from both sides of the aircraft simultaneously, while the A330 MRTT is expected to be ready to conduct automatic air-to-air refuelling "in less than three years". Airbus is also exploring the possibility of allowing the remodelled widebody to take on ISR missions. Airbus is still proceeding with an "armed version" of the C295 medium transport, with the derivative in the engineering, development and testing phase. Flight tests will begin in late 2018. "There are big opportunities for us in Asia-Pacific: big fleets are here, budgets are here. We are able to fulfill needs in a more agile way," says Alonso. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/singapore-airbus-explores-a320neo-military-derivati-445670/