A Lockheed Martin [LMT]-Raytheon [RTN] team demonstrated its potential electronic attack solution for the Navy’s Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), according to a Lockheed Martin statement.
The demonstration took place in mid-July during the multi-national Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maritime exercise near Hawaii, according to Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Eschenfelder.
The team’s potential electronic attack (EA) solution is an EA capability for the SEWIP Block 3 upgrade to the AN/SLQ-32 radar, Eschenfelder said yesterday in an email. The potential solution went to sea aboard Lockheed Martin’s mobile Integrated Common Electronic Warfare System test bed to demonstrate proposed improvements to the fleet’s capability to electronically attack anti-ship missiles, according to a statement. This is in advance of a Navy competition later this summer.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] spokeswoman Yolanda Murphy said yesterday the company will bid on SEWIP.
Deployed by Raytheon in the 1970s, the original AN/SLQ-32 systems employed passive radar technology for early warning, identification and tracking of enemy threats, Eschenfelder said. He added subsequent upgrades provided an additional active capability for simultaneous jamming of multiple threats.
SEWIP is an evolutionary development of block upgrades to the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare system installed on all United States aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and other warships to improve anti-ship missile defense, counter-targeting and counter-surveillance activities, according to a statement. The current SLQ-32 is deployed in six variants on all surface ships in the fleet, with the exception of Littoral Combat Ship as well as U.S. Coast Guard cutters, according to the Navy.
The Navy competitively awarded Lockheed Martin the SEWIP Block 2 contract in November 2009 to upgrade the passive detection capabilities of the fleet’s AN/SLQ-32 systems and establish a framework to easily install future upgrades. The company held a successful critical design review in February 2011 and is now integrating and testing its SEWIP Block 2 solution on two engineering development models.