US Navy Looking to Blend Electronic Warfare, Cyber Capabilities With Next Generation Jammer

The U.S. Navy seeks to demonstrate a mix of electronic warfare and cyber capabilities through its aerial electronic attack platform dubbed the Next Generation Jammer.

The NGJ, which is split into three pods covering the mid, low and high portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, will be mounted on the EA-18G Growler aircraft and serve as the replacement for the legacy ALQ-99 jamming pod, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

Speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Association of Old Crows, Rear Adm. John Meier, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, touted the jammer and its potential to open up a wide array of jamming techniques, ranges and effective radiated power and do things the previous jammer was unable to do.

According to Meier, the Next Generation Jammer will enable forces to better hone in on particular targets at much greater distances owing to its phased array, digital-frequency jamming, multiple-beam and narrower-beams capabilities.

Two of the three pods have seen progress. 

In 2016, Raytheon was awarded a $1 billion contract to design, manufacture and perform demonstrations of the digitized jammer’s mid-band pod.

The Navy is now looking to start low-rate initial production of the mid-band pod in the midyear, with plans to begin initial operational capability in 2022.

Progress has also been made with the low-band pod with the award of a $496 million engineering and manufacturing development contract to L3Harris Technologies.

The contract covers the final design and manufacturing of eight operational prototype pods.