April 30, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Andrew Eversden
The Army has moved the Lockheed Martin-made electronic warfare pod to the build and evaluation phase of the operational system, as it bolsters its electronic warfare capabilities.
The second phase agreement is worth nearly $75 million, according to the Consortium Management Group's Jan. 30 award listing, which made the award on behalf of the Army.
Lockheed Martin's electronic warfare pod, known as the “Air Large” piece of the Army's Multi-Function Electronic Warfare family of systems program, is mounted on an MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone. It provides commanders with jamming capabilities as well as electronic support, or sensing of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The defense contractor developed a prototype as part of the first phase of the project it won in January 2019 under an $18 million contact.
“Our internal research & development programs have resulted in first-of-its-kind converged technologies that are at the forefront of realizing our customers' urgent need and vision for combined cyber and electronic warfare (EW) capability and dominance,” Deon Viergutz, vice president of Lockheed's Spectrum Convergence division, said in a statement.
The company has been testing the pod as part of the Army's Cyber Blitz exercise. Army officials plan to have the capability deployed to combat aviation brigades in 2022.
The pods are expected to play a critical role on the battlefield with near-peer adversaries, such as Russia and China.
“The air pod solutions are very important, especially when you start going against a near-peer competitor. The main reason why is because you start now dealing with more of an [electronic intelligence] ELINT threat than with a strictly commercial threat,” Col. Kevin Finch, program manager for electronic warfare and cyber within Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, told C4ISRNET in October last year.
April 25, 2024 | International, Aerospace
Bombardier is now the second large Canadian corporation known to have been granted an exemption from federal government sanctions on Russian titanium.
May 25, 2021 | International, Aerospace
The service plans to award a contract worth up to $490 million to a single vendor that can team with other companies to provide various counter-drone products.
September 19, 2018 | International, Land
By: Todd South A recent annual conference at the epicenter of the Army's maneuver force training saw combat arms leaders focusing on transforming the force with an eye toward future conflict. Though in past years portions of the annual conference have been open to the media, this year staff decided to close the entire event to outside media. The following information was gleaned from Army releases on the event. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, told attendees that five near-term priorities will drive how well today's soldiers are ready for their next operating environment. Those priorities include: A review of how the Army recruits its soldiers and a plan to improve. Improving the leader-to-led ratio and resourcing in initial entry training. Successfully standing up Army Futures Command. Fielding a new Combat Fitness Test and changing the force's fitness culture. Ramping up Multi-Domain Operations into doctrine and practice. Each of these near-term priorities have some early work already completed, with more on the way. Full article: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/09/18/here-are-the-top-issues-the-armys-combat-arms-leaders-are-working-on-to-make-sure-soldiers-are-ready-to-fight