By Geoff Fein
Raytheon [RTN] officials believe efforts to develop the Next Generation Jammer as well as their familiarity with the EA-18G give the company an advantage in the effort to deliver this capability to the Navy.
Raytheon is relying on efforts not only among its Electronic Warfare business units, but from other sectors that make phased array radar apertures, microwave transmit receive modules and electro optical infrared systems for airborne radars, Jim Bailey, capture manager, strategy & business development, space and airborne systems, told Defense Daily Monday.
The company will also pursue outside vendors, for example, the power generation system’s ram air turbine is likely to be subcontracted during a parallel development activity, he added.
“There are a couple of suppliers that look promising. The Navy has been fostering one via an SBIR. There are other sources [too]. We will look at them and pick the right one,” Bailey said. “There are other candidates to make other subsystems that we are looking at. We have a lot of the elements of the system we think are already pretty far along in the development path.”
Bailey added that the internal Raytheon development effort gives the company an advantage because they have been working on these technologies for several years and understand how to work together to make them work as a system.
“We have been working together as a company in a very integrated fashion for several years. We’ve been pursuing similar technologies that are going to feed into this system for several years,” he said. “As a result of that activity, we think it is a competitive advantage.”
The Next Generation Jammer will replace the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system, a key component of the EA-6B Prowler.
The Next Generation Jammer will be installed on the EA-18G, the Navy’s newest electronic warfare aircraft. The Marine Corps variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is another candidate platform, because of the Corps’ decision not to buy the EA-18G, Chuck Orbell, business development director, space and airborne systems, told Defense Daily during the same interview.
Beyond the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant, there are no plans to install the Next Generation Jammer on other F-35 models or other Navy or Air Force aircraft, he added.
The ALQ-99 was designed in the 1960s and first fielded in the early 1970s, Bailey said. “It’s well designed as a modular system. It is just that some of the elements are…about time for a change.”
“We have been using this system for a lot more things than originally planned, supporting ground forces, etc.,” Orbell added. “It’s about time for an operational utility increase as well as a supportability improvement.”
For 38, years the Navy has got a good life span out of the ALQ-99, Bailey said.
“When we implement the Next Generation Jammer, we will be creating a system that will have increased life because we have learned a lot more about the environment and how to create high-reliability long-life electronics and subsystems,” he added.
One of the biggest changes coming with the Next Generation Jammer is that it will provide flight crews access to band transmitters and the ability to change between bands, from inside the plane, as opposed to having to do that on the flight deck, Bailey said.
The Navy has required a modular open architecture, and a scalable architecture-Modular Open System Approach, Bailey said.
“We take that into consideration with all the development that we have in terms of the hardware and software, which would allow the Next Generation Jammer to replace the operational 7 band of the ALQ-99 with a single subsystem that’s available on the aircraft all the time,” he said.
If a flight crew wanted to change from the band seven transmitter to operate in band four, then crews would have to change the band seven transmitter on the flight deck or below deck, Bailey added.
“We will essentially have coverage from band four through band 10 replacing seven different transmitters,” he said. “A modular scalable architecture that covers all those bands all the time on the aircraft.”