The Navy on Tuesday confirmed a recent contract to L3Harris Technologies [LHX] is for the engineering and manufacturing development of the Next Generation Jammer-Low Band (NGJ-LB), following several setbacks to starting up the program.
“NGJ-LB will meet current and emerging electronic warfare threats and increase the lethality of 4th and 5th generation platforms and strike weapons. The Navy will partner with L3Harris to get this key capability into the hands of the warfighter,” Rear Adm. John Lemmon, Program Executive Officer for Tactical Aircraft Program, said in a statement.
Last month, the DoD
announced this Navy contract to design, produce and deliver various electronic warfare test articles and fleet prototypes related to NGJ-LB technology “in support of engineering and manufacturing development” for NGJ-LB (Defense Daily, Aug. 27).
The NGJ-LB is one of three divided segments of the sensor systems to ultimately replace the legacy ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System on the EA-18G Growler aircraft. It is split into low, mid and high bands. The Navy said new software and Active Electronically Scanned Array technologies will improve the aircraft’s abilities to disrupt, deny and degrade enemy air defense and ground communications systems.
NGJ-LB is a joint cooperative program between the U.S. and Australian defense departments.
The Navy first awarded the NGN-LB contract to both L3Harris and Northrop Grumman [NOC] in 2018, followed by an initial downselect to L3Harris in December 2020. This was followed by a series of protests by Northrop Grumman in which the Navy kept re-awarding the contract to L3Harris.
Ultimately, Northrop Grumman lodged a complaint in the Court of Federal Claims, leading to the Navy and both competitors agreeing to restart and reopen the competition.
Last year, a DoD reprogramming request said it planned to award this newest version of NGJ-LB in September 2023, almost a year before this latest award (Defense Daily, July 19, 2023).
The Navy issue the amended request for proposals with updated requirements in June 2023 and then received the final revised proposals from the same competitors in July before this August decision.
The Navy now said this award supports the final design efforts and manufacturing of operational prototype pods and system-level prototypes for the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Air Force.
The Navy said the current schedule will have NJG-LB reach early operational capability in 2029.
“The contract award is a major step for our fleet as well as the RAAF. Our partnership with Australia to develop the newest AEA jamming capability exhibits our joint commitment to ensure continued superiority over the electromagnetic spectrum,” Capt. David Rueter, Airborne Electronic Attack Systems Program Office (PMA-234) Program Manager, added.