June 10, 2024 | International, Aerospace
October 29, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau
The Navy has selected a company to demonstrate existing technologies for the second increment of the service's multiphase approach to replacing an aging jamming pod.
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $35.1 million, 20-month contract for the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) Low Band, part of the jamming pods that will be outfitted onto EA-18 Growler aircraft to replace the legacy ALQ-99 jammer.
The Navy is splitting the upgrade into three pods to cover respective parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The order of development for the pods is “Mid-Band (Increment (Inc) 1), Low-Band (Inc 2), and the future High-Band (Inc 3),” which “was determined based on criticality of current and emergent threats,” a Navy spokesmen previously told C4ISRNET in response to written questions. “The NGJ full system capability is comprised of these three standalone programs ... each of which covers a different frequency band and addresses a variety of adversary systems.”
Northrop's contract award is part of a demonstrator that will help inform the Navy of how to continue to mature the program for the low-band jammer.
“Northrop Grumman will deliver a mature, low-risk and exceedingly capable solution for Next Generation Jammer Low Band that outpaces evolving threats and enables the Navy's speed-to-fleet path,” said Thomas Jones, vice president and general manager, airborne C4ISR systems, Northrop Grumman.
“Our NGJ-LB pod provides multimission capability for electromagnetic maneuver warfare. We stand ready to demonstrate advancements in this mission area and deliver ahead of schedule.”
The low-band capability will “deliver significantly improved radar and communications jamming capabilities with Open Systems Architecture that supports software and hardware updates to rapidly counter improving threats” contributing “across the spectrum of missions defined in the Defense Strategic Guidance to include strike warfare, projecting power despite anti-access/area denial challenges, and counterinsurgency/irregular warfare,” Navy budget documents have stated.
Raytheon is currently on contract for the mid-band portion, which has been dubbed AN/ALQ-249(V)1 by the Navy.
 
					June 10, 2024 | International, Aerospace
 
					November 22, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Les groupes Raytheon, Lockheed Martin et Northrop Grumman vont développer des missiles pour aider les États-Unis à mieux se défendre contre des attaques hypersoniques, a indiqué le Pentagone, vendredi 19 novembre. Les trois contrats, à hauteur de plus de 60 M$ au total, ont été conclus pour le développement de missiles intercepteurs. Les missiles hypersoniques sont plus manœuvrables que les missiles balistiques et peuvent évoluer à basse altitude, ce qui les rend plus difficilement détectables. Selon Washington, Pékin a testé en août dernier un missile hypersonique avec charge nucléaire très difficile à intercepter. Les États-Unis estiment que Pékin développe cette technologie beaucoup plus rapidement que prévu. Le Figaro du 20 novembre
 
					June 14, 2019 | International, Naval
By Hemanth Kumar and Talal Husseini The UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is set to launch a new competition to seek intelligent systems and technology solutions to develop a comprehensive future Royal Navy fleet. Known as ‘Intelligent Ship – The Next Generation', the competition will be officially launched in London on 19 June. Through the competition, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) is looking for proposals for novel and innovative projects to facilitate the wider use of intelligent systems within future warships. The MOD said in the competition document: “This aim is based on a future vision where elements of automation, autonomy, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are closely integrated and teamed with human decision makers. “It is expected that this will ensure timely, more informed and trusted decision-making and planning, within complex, cluttered, contested and congested operating and data environments.” DASA will offer £1m in funding for innovative proposals under the first phase of the future Royal Navy fleet competition. An additional £3m will be made available to fund subsequent phases. The adoption of advanced technologies is seen as a pivotal move in the efforts to reduce decision times in order to meet future threat capabilities. Interested companies will have to showcase through their proposals how they would improve automation, autonomous functions, and AI-enabled decision aides. The scope also includes demonstrating how the proposals could improve speed and/or quality of decision-making and mission planning in a future naval operating environment. The MOD clarified that it does not want proposals that do not “offer significant benefit to defence and security capability”, or “offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence and security capabilities”, or “offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions”. The MOD went on to say: “It is important that over the lifetime of DASA competitions, ideas are matured and accelerated towards appropriate end-users to enhance current or future capability. “How long this takes will be dependent on the nature and starting point of the innovation. Early identification and appropriate engagement with end-users during the competition and subsequent phases are essential.” Parties will have time until 23 July 2019 to pitch their ideas for the competition. https://www.naval-technology.com/news/uk-future-royal-navy-fleet/