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The growing overlap of elec*tronic warfare and cyber-invasion is generating excitement around the U.S. Navys competition for the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) and the U.S. Air Forces reentry into the world of airborne electronic attack.
A key enabling technology is a six-sided active, electronically scanned array (AESA) that more than doubles the field of view of todays electronically scanned antennas on advanced aircraft such as the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
Other technologies include broadband AESA, advanced radars, digitized exciters and techniques generators that produce exotic waveforms and algorithms for electronic and cyber*warfare. Perhaps more importantly, todays concepts and technology are stepping-stones to wider apertures, cooler amplifiers and faster processing, say aerospace industry officials involved in the competition. Initial operating capability for the NGJ in the Boeing EA‑18G Growler fleet is 2018. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is to add an advanced electronic attack capability in a Block 5 aircraft sometime after 2020.
The technology suite that goes into the Next-Generation Jammer [for the Growler] is relevant to other solutions, agrees Rick Martin, Boeings director for electronic warfare at the companys Phantom Works organization.
The NGJ might be a major improvement because for the first time broadband electronically scanned arrays (ESAs) could be added to the Growler platform, says Eduardo Palacio, vice president of programs for ITT Electronic Systems.
Boeing and ITT officials will not talk about the key antenna technology in their NGJ pod design. But others with insight into the program say that it involves a sophisticated arrangement of six planar AESAs in an elongated, hexagon shape to create a continuous, scalloped and overlapping, 360-deg. coverage area with less range and accuracy degradation at array join points.
The antenna arrangement is designed to overcome the intrinsic weakness of ESAs, which is its effective field of regard of about 120 deg. for each planar array of transmitter/receiver modules. So far, various teams have addressed the problem differently. Northrop Grummans radar for the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail has two side-looking antennas and fore and aft gap-fillers based on unusual endfire arrays. The Israel Aerospace Industries-modified Russian A-50 delivered to India has three arrays in a ro*todome. The Gulfstream-based IAI-Elta airborne early warning aircraft delivered to Israel and Singapore has two side and two fore-and-aft arrays cooperating in different bands. However, none provides uniform coverage in all directions.
The Boeing/ITT NGJ package will be linked, but separate from the Growlers advanced AESA radar. Some proposals in the competition include the AESA radar as part of the NGJ design. Critics contend that a radars duty cycle is very different (pulses instead of continuous power) from that of a jammer/electronic attack system.
At some point, the radar will run into its limitations, Palacio says. That could be the amount of power required for a target or targets that need to be handled. The mission of NGJ will be to deal with a large number of threats [by using] a large amount of [radio-frequency] energy and focus on the [EA] mission, he says.
The Growler has a very sophisticated AESA radar, but how many tasks are you going to place on that radar and [its limited] field of regard? Martin says. The radar is looking forward, and ideally you would like the pilot to use it to sterilize the environment and protect the aircraft with air-to-air targeting. The aircrew in the back would have a full 360-deg. jamming capability with multiple, simultaneous beams engaging surface and air-to-air targets [such as missiles or aircraft].
The AESA elements cover a wider frequency band than the horn antennas in the current ALQ-99 jamming pods. ITT is not commenting on whether this would make it possible to change todays architecture, in which each pod can be loaded with a different combination of traveling-wave-tube and antenna modules to cover different frequencies. Its a trade space, says Palacio. There are lots of things that would allow me to maintain the current operational capability.
ITT and Boeing expect to be selected for the forthcoming maturation phase of the program, along with the three other contending teams led by Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and BAE Systems. That phase is likely to start this summer and continue for 18-21 months, with contractor work proceeding in parallel with the Navys definition of a specification.
The NGJ package (in some form) is expected to be carried by the F-35 as the successor to the Growler, although that will not happen until after 2020, and more likely closer to 2040, as the EA-18G aircraft start using up their airframe lives. Moreover, it was recently revealed that because of a reduction in fighter aircraft, stealthy platforms such as the F-22 and F-35 will be provided jamming and electronic attack support by nonstealthy F-15C (modified with AESA radars and EA systems) and semi-stealthy *Growlers for decades. The new force-structure model has the potential to extend Growler production and use for years, say industry analysts.
The ITT-Boeing team is convinced that the NGJ project should focus first on developing a replacement jamming pod system for the Growler.
We need to take it one level of uncertainty at a time, says Palacio.
Martin points out that the EA-18G took six years and $1.2 billion to develop, starting with a stable Super Hornet Block 2 configuration. To develop a platform, a complete electronic attack suite [for F-35] in eight years violates mathematics, he says.
Packaging the NGJ into various pod configurations could expand its applications for advanced aircraft.
A podded solution gives the advantages of flexibility and field of view, Martin says. Advanced programs may want to take advantage of that. The challenge with any system is working out the power, cooling and volume, as well as survivability integration challenges that come with an internal solution.
Options for external packaging include stealthy and nonstealthy pods or a smaller conformal design that can be added without changing the platform signature, Martin says.
If the solution becomes internal, then we have to consider [more expensive] conformal apertures and the right radomeall the things associated with a JSF-like structure, Palacio says.
There is another argument that the NGJ package installed on an F-35 will not be as powerful an electronic attack platform as the Growler without adding upgrades that would be too expensive and time-consuming to field. Whereas, on the Growler, the NGJ pod will be part of an integrated EA system that includes an advanced digital receiver, data fusion on the platform, multi-source integration and optimized crew/vehicle interfaces, along with jammer and weapons management.
The digital receivers are tailored to identify and geo-locate where the threat emitters are, Martin says. There are other data sources coming into the platform that allow you to fuse all the information into an operational picture for electronic attack. All of that is in play before you ever hit a button to jam something.
In 2040, the [EA-18G] will still be out there, but well know by then what it takes to transition to an all-up, stealthy EA weapons system for an aircraft, he says. Its going to be supporting a broad range of missions, some we have even conceived of yet. Cyber is out there.
Credit: US Navy
Jammer Competition Spurs New Technology | AVIATION WEEK
A key enabling technology is a six-sided active, electronically scanned array (AESA) that more than doubles the field of view of todays electronically scanned antennas on advanced aircraft such as the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
Other technologies include broadband AESA, advanced radars, digitized exciters and techniques generators that produce exotic waveforms and algorithms for electronic and cyber*warfare. Perhaps more importantly, todays concepts and technology are stepping-stones to wider apertures, cooler amplifiers and faster processing, say aerospace industry officials involved in the competition. Initial operating capability for the NGJ in the Boeing EA‑18G Growler fleet is 2018. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is to add an advanced electronic attack capability in a Block 5 aircraft sometime after 2020.
The technology suite that goes into the Next-Generation Jammer [for the Growler] is relevant to other solutions, agrees Rick Martin, Boeings director for electronic warfare at the companys Phantom Works organization.
The NGJ might be a major improvement because for the first time broadband electronically scanned arrays (ESAs) could be added to the Growler platform, says Eduardo Palacio, vice president of programs for ITT Electronic Systems.
Boeing and ITT officials will not talk about the key antenna technology in their NGJ pod design. But others with insight into the program say that it involves a sophisticated arrangement of six planar AESAs in an elongated, hexagon shape to create a continuous, scalloped and overlapping, 360-deg. coverage area with less range and accuracy degradation at array join points.
The antenna arrangement is designed to overcome the intrinsic weakness of ESAs, which is its effective field of regard of about 120 deg. for each planar array of transmitter/receiver modules. So far, various teams have addressed the problem differently. Northrop Grummans radar for the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail has two side-looking antennas and fore and aft gap-fillers based on unusual endfire arrays. The Israel Aerospace Industries-modified Russian A-50 delivered to India has three arrays in a ro*todome. The Gulfstream-based IAI-Elta airborne early warning aircraft delivered to Israel and Singapore has two side and two fore-and-aft arrays cooperating in different bands. However, none provides uniform coverage in all directions.
The Boeing/ITT NGJ package will be linked, but separate from the Growlers advanced AESA radar. Some proposals in the competition include the AESA radar as part of the NGJ design. Critics contend that a radars duty cycle is very different (pulses instead of continuous power) from that of a jammer/electronic attack system.
At some point, the radar will run into its limitations, Palacio says. That could be the amount of power required for a target or targets that need to be handled. The mission of NGJ will be to deal with a large number of threats [by using] a large amount of [radio-frequency] energy and focus on the [EA] mission, he says.
The Growler has a very sophisticated AESA radar, but how many tasks are you going to place on that radar and [its limited] field of regard? Martin says. The radar is looking forward, and ideally you would like the pilot to use it to sterilize the environment and protect the aircraft with air-to-air targeting. The aircrew in the back would have a full 360-deg. jamming capability with multiple, simultaneous beams engaging surface and air-to-air targets [such as missiles or aircraft].
The AESA elements cover a wider frequency band than the horn antennas in the current ALQ-99 jamming pods. ITT is not commenting on whether this would make it possible to change todays architecture, in which each pod can be loaded with a different combination of traveling-wave-tube and antenna modules to cover different frequencies. Its a trade space, says Palacio. There are lots of things that would allow me to maintain the current operational capability.
ITT and Boeing expect to be selected for the forthcoming maturation phase of the program, along with the three other contending teams led by Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and BAE Systems. That phase is likely to start this summer and continue for 18-21 months, with contractor work proceeding in parallel with the Navys definition of a specification.
The NGJ package (in some form) is expected to be carried by the F-35 as the successor to the Growler, although that will not happen until after 2020, and more likely closer to 2040, as the EA-18G aircraft start using up their airframe lives. Moreover, it was recently revealed that because of a reduction in fighter aircraft, stealthy platforms such as the F-22 and F-35 will be provided jamming and electronic attack support by nonstealthy F-15C (modified with AESA radars and EA systems) and semi-stealthy *Growlers for decades. The new force-structure model has the potential to extend Growler production and use for years, say industry analysts.
The ITT-Boeing team is convinced that the NGJ project should focus first on developing a replacement jamming pod system for the Growler.
We need to take it one level of uncertainty at a time, says Palacio.
Martin points out that the EA-18G took six years and $1.2 billion to develop, starting with a stable Super Hornet Block 2 configuration. To develop a platform, a complete electronic attack suite [for F-35] in eight years violates mathematics, he says.
Packaging the NGJ into various pod configurations could expand its applications for advanced aircraft.
A podded solution gives the advantages of flexibility and field of view, Martin says. Advanced programs may want to take advantage of that. The challenge with any system is working out the power, cooling and volume, as well as survivability integration challenges that come with an internal solution.
Options for external packaging include stealthy and nonstealthy pods or a smaller conformal design that can be added without changing the platform signature, Martin says.
If the solution becomes internal, then we have to consider [more expensive] conformal apertures and the right radomeall the things associated with a JSF-like structure, Palacio says.
There is another argument that the NGJ package installed on an F-35 will not be as powerful an electronic attack platform as the Growler without adding upgrades that would be too expensive and time-consuming to field. Whereas, on the Growler, the NGJ pod will be part of an integrated EA system that includes an advanced digital receiver, data fusion on the platform, multi-source integration and optimized crew/vehicle interfaces, along with jammer and weapons management.
The digital receivers are tailored to identify and geo-locate where the threat emitters are, Martin says. There are other data sources coming into the platform that allow you to fuse all the information into an operational picture for electronic attack. All of that is in play before you ever hit a button to jam something.
In 2040, the [EA-18G] will still be out there, but well know by then what it takes to transition to an all-up, stealthy EA weapons system for an aircraft, he says. Its going to be supporting a broad range of missions, some we have even conceived of yet. Cyber is out there.
Credit: US Navy
Jammer Competition Spurs New Technology | AVIATION WEEK
