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It is s a project to develop an airborne electronic warfare system to replace AN / ALQ99 by 2021.
Use of cyber war and digital payloads
The transmission capacity is about 155 kW!!!
AN/ALQ99
The method of work:
For network jamming:
Cyber war and digital payloads
CPU virus spreader/ Net-Hacker
flooding the frequencies in which they operate with energy so that enemies cannot collect or transmit information, and that requires being able to precisely identify the relevant frequencies and then generate sufficient local energy to prevent their use.
Active electronically scanned arrays:
meaning transmitters that direct their jamming signals by shifting phase electronically rather than being mechanically moved. Moving parts tend to wear out, and can’t deliver the agility of electronically-scanned systems.
The Next Generation Jammer will be able to defeat diverse threats simultaneously with sufficient accuracy so that it does not disrupt friendly signals on adjacent frequencies (such as GPS signals). It will be more efficient, more reliable, and more maintainable.
Testing on Gulf Stream
These are the future replacements of the current DRFM technology for EW / ECM systems
The broader aim is to develop a more cost effective AEA system with better performance against advanced threats through expanded broadband capability for greater threat coverage against a wider variety of radio frequency emitters, faster collect-analyze-jam loops, more flexibility in terms of jamming profiles that can change in flight, better precision within jamming assignments, and more interoperability.
The 1st step is to replace the mid-band ALQ-99 pods on US Navy EA-18Gs. NGJ Increment 1 would offer better mid-band jamming capabilities, where most current threats reside, at reduced operations and sustainment cost. Digital technologies offer easier upgrades, and the 1st NGJ increment also emphasizes a Modular, Open System Approach (MOSA) to the electronics, in order to lay those foundations for future improvements and deployments.
The AN/ALQ-99 low-band pod on the centerline was recently modernized, and is expected to remain in the fleet for some time, but NGJ is eventually expected to add those functions as Increment 2. Whether this will be done as a separate pod, or integrated into the existing NGJ, is undetermined. Later Increment 3 upgrades are expected to add higher band jamming capabilities, which the Navy doesn’t currently possess.
EC-130H Compass Call
(click to view full)
Future deployments may involve thinking beyond the pod. The eventual goal for the next-generation jammer involves moving beyond the EA-18, and becoming a modular set of gear that could be installed in F-35 variants, or in other aircraft. Larger planes like bombers and special mission EC-130 Hercules could certainly benefit from a modern jamming option.
So, too, could stealth fighters, who would have their cover completely blown by EA-18Gs alongside. Or by pods hanging from their wings. Configuring future NGJ options for internal carriage on stealth fighters could benefit other platforms, too, but initial estimates for F-35 integration costs were very high.
That has led the US Navy to focus on the EA-18G. With a 2020 fielding date expected, senior sources have indicated that it could take until the late 2020s for the US military to look at internal/F-35 integration again. That will leave the USMC’s 4 EA-6B squadrons without an in-service replacement as they retire, shifting the AEA mission entirely to the Navy. There has been some talk of using UAVs as an interim step, and jet-powered MALD-J loiter & jam decoys could be integrated with USMC fighters if the service believes that they needed an interim capability.
Then there’s the question of exports.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/we-be-jammin-the-usas-next-generation-strike-jammer-015217/
The Role Of NGJ
The NGJ is being designed to break the acquisition cycle of radar installations in the search or early-warning phase of detection. S-band radar installations are the threat most often considered, as they are used in most surface-to-air (SAM) missile systems and other anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems. “As that would be your queen on the board, you would want to protect those high-value assets. If you remove the Growlers, you remove the cover and everyone is exposed,” says Andy Lowery, the NGJ chief engineer for Raytheon
To provide these features, the current AN/ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System (TJS) required replacement. The ALQ-99 is a ram-air, turbine-powered mid-band jamming array that uses mechanically steered technology. It comprises mostly analog technology and delivers turbine power to roughly 27 kW. The power conversion and RF-transmission electronics in the ALQ-99 were designed with older technology. As a result, it cannot use the turbine-generated power in a highly efficient manner. This limits both range and target suppression abilities.
To cover the ultra-high-frequency (UHF) to X-band range, the band-appropriate, mechanically steered antenna arrays require time-consuming installation. This missionization structure only allows a Growler to offer EW capability for a single narrow-frequency range. The NGJ program is designed to reinvent the methods used for jamming technology to eliminate these drawbacks.
“This particular program is completely on the other end of the spectrum. It taps into state-of-the-art technologies from tip to tail. It has a very advanced set of technologies and leverages brand new designs and developments,” notes Lowery.
Several global factors are contributing to the drive to improve the jamming systems of modern warfighters. For instance, the power and sensitivity of potentially hostile radar systems is allowing for much longer range as a byproduct of their increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Today, more countries are producing large numbers of radar installations in dense configurations. The technological sophistication of these radar systems mitigates traditional stealth technology, due to improved signal-processing techniques and jamming avoidance.
To counter these feature enhancements, the NGJ upgrades the jamming capability of the EA-18G with GaN power/thermal-management systems. It uses the electronic scan nature of the AESAs to contend with numerous radar systems. At the same time, it increases back-end system capability with highly sophisticated computer control along with rapid reprogrammability.
The goal of the NGJ program is to equip the EA-18G airframe with full 360-deg. EW wideband capability that can be adapted to best handle situations that arise. (Courtesy of Raytheon)
The array modules include electronics that use GaN high-power amplifiers (HPAs). Those amplifiers drive the power signals through the circulators and apertures to the array elements. The AESAs can therefore form high-energy RF beams with advanced signal capability that can be steered by a highly advanced and rapidly reprogrammable computer.
“Due to the nature of it being an AESA, you can form many beams or a super beam with a lot of energy. It is agile, so you can dart from one system to another system on the ground almost instantaneously,” says Lowery.
The computers driving the NGJ system also communicate with the Growler’s common electronics unit (CEU), which has the enhanced ability to link with military-communications networks. In essence, this makes the NGJ system an extremely mobile, high-power, wideband, networked, and steerable long-range software-defined radio (SDR). There are many potential applications for the NGJ system, although currently the NGJ is geared specifically for jamming.
In addition, each pod is a fully self-sustaining system capable of generating its own highly efficient power, cooling, and transmission. The pods require no ship-generated power or resources other than instructions. An edge in efficiency is acquired by using a submerged ram-air turbine technique that enables air power to be extracted. The articulating cores can be completely enclosed during flight, which creates an extremely streamlined pod design for lower drag.
“When they are ready for a jamming mission, it can deploy taking in air and produce an excess of three times more power from the airstream than the ALQ-99,” Lowery says.
Once this air-based mechanical energy is converted to AC electrical energy, it is converted into high-voltage DC. Another conversion produces low-voltage DC power primarily for the GaN-based electronics driving the four arrays and the intelligent subsystems.
Working With GaN
Raytheon has been developing GaN technology for 15 years. In addition to delivering higher frequency, bandwidth, and power from RF devices that are defense-ready, GaN technology offers a much smaller footprint, larger wafer sizes, increased yields, and higher efficiencies. Currently, Raytheon is manufacturing its GaN circuits in its foundry in Andover, Mass. The Pentagon awarded this foundry with a manufacturing readiness level (MRL) of eight, which is the highest rating for any organization in the defense industry for that technology sector.
All of GaN technology’s strengths make it a very attractive solution for defense applications, which may have been a key factor in Raytheon winning the NGJ contract. Of course, the benefits of GaN technology don’t come without critical design considerations. Working with extremely high-frequency and high-power components in a very dense space requires the dissipating of heat that is produced by its operation, preventing poor efficiencies and device failure.
“If you can’t spread the heat, the device will burn itself out. Or you will at least have to back off the power and not use the device to its full potential,” says Lowery.
The cooling system used in the NGJ is based on a single-phase system similar to a car-radiator fluid system. But it boasts far greater sophistication and more modern design. This type of thermal-management system was chosen for its robust nature. It can operate reliably across a wide range of environmental conditions.
Additionally, the design lends itself to very high heat dissipation for its size. Stock cold plates with advanced adhesives are used to sink the thermal energy from the AESA. The thermal energy is further spread throughout a larger heat-dissipation system using an ethylene-glycol and water-mixture-based liquid.
The amount of heat flux generated by the latest GaN devices in such a small area could approach and exceed the heat flux of a nuclear explosion, making the heat-dissipating technology critically important. This is a more exaggerated problem with GaN devices compared to gallium-arsenide (GaAs) devices, due to GaN technology having power density and bandwidth capacity that is many times greater than GaAs. Research and development is still being invested in discovering the best performing adhesives and thermal spreaders.
The goal of the thermal-management system is to provide a secure fixture under extreme G-forces and excellent grounding while spreading the heat from the pinpoint generation zones of the GaN devices. Diamond thermal spreaders are of particular interest, as they have extremely high thermal conductivity. Using diamond as a semiconductor substrate for a GaN-on-diamond insulator process could solve many of the thermal stress issues that arise with GaN technology.
http://mwrf.com/datasheet/gan-based-aesas-enable-next-generation-jammer-pdf-download
Use of cyber war and digital payloads
The transmission capacity is about 155 kW!!!
AN/ALQ99
The method of work:
For network jamming:
Cyber war and digital payloads
CPU virus spreader/ Net-Hacker
flooding the frequencies in which they operate with energy so that enemies cannot collect or transmit information, and that requires being able to precisely identify the relevant frequencies and then generate sufficient local energy to prevent their use.
Active electronically scanned arrays:
meaning transmitters that direct their jamming signals by shifting phase electronically rather than being mechanically moved. Moving parts tend to wear out, and can’t deliver the agility of electronically-scanned systems.
The Next Generation Jammer will be able to defeat diverse threats simultaneously with sufficient accuracy so that it does not disrupt friendly signals on adjacent frequencies (such as GPS signals). It will be more efficient, more reliable, and more maintainable.
Testing on Gulf Stream
These are the future replacements of the current DRFM technology for EW / ECM systems
The broader aim is to develop a more cost effective AEA system with better performance against advanced threats through expanded broadband capability for greater threat coverage against a wider variety of radio frequency emitters, faster collect-analyze-jam loops, more flexibility in terms of jamming profiles that can change in flight, better precision within jamming assignments, and more interoperability.
The 1st step is to replace the mid-band ALQ-99 pods on US Navy EA-18Gs. NGJ Increment 1 would offer better mid-band jamming capabilities, where most current threats reside, at reduced operations and sustainment cost. Digital technologies offer easier upgrades, and the 1st NGJ increment also emphasizes a Modular, Open System Approach (MOSA) to the electronics, in order to lay those foundations for future improvements and deployments.
The AN/ALQ-99 low-band pod on the centerline was recently modernized, and is expected to remain in the fleet for some time, but NGJ is eventually expected to add those functions as Increment 2. Whether this will be done as a separate pod, or integrated into the existing NGJ, is undetermined. Later Increment 3 upgrades are expected to add higher band jamming capabilities, which the Navy doesn’t currently possess.
EC-130H Compass Call
(click to view full)
Future deployments may involve thinking beyond the pod. The eventual goal for the next-generation jammer involves moving beyond the EA-18, and becoming a modular set of gear that could be installed in F-35 variants, or in other aircraft. Larger planes like bombers and special mission EC-130 Hercules could certainly benefit from a modern jamming option.
So, too, could stealth fighters, who would have their cover completely blown by EA-18Gs alongside. Or by pods hanging from their wings. Configuring future NGJ options for internal carriage on stealth fighters could benefit other platforms, too, but initial estimates for F-35 integration costs were very high.
That has led the US Navy to focus on the EA-18G. With a 2020 fielding date expected, senior sources have indicated that it could take until the late 2020s for the US military to look at internal/F-35 integration again. That will leave the USMC’s 4 EA-6B squadrons without an in-service replacement as they retire, shifting the AEA mission entirely to the Navy. There has been some talk of using UAVs as an interim step, and jet-powered MALD-J loiter & jam decoys could be integrated with USMC fighters if the service believes that they needed an interim capability.
Then there’s the question of exports.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/we-be-jammin-the-usas-next-generation-strike-jammer-015217/
The Role Of NGJ
The NGJ is being designed to break the acquisition cycle of radar installations in the search or early-warning phase of detection. S-band radar installations are the threat most often considered, as they are used in most surface-to-air (SAM) missile systems and other anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems. “As that would be your queen on the board, you would want to protect those high-value assets. If you remove the Growlers, you remove the cover and everyone is exposed,” says Andy Lowery, the NGJ chief engineer for Raytheon
To provide these features, the current AN/ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System (TJS) required replacement. The ALQ-99 is a ram-air, turbine-powered mid-band jamming array that uses mechanically steered technology. It comprises mostly analog technology and delivers turbine power to roughly 27 kW. The power conversion and RF-transmission electronics in the ALQ-99 were designed with older technology. As a result, it cannot use the turbine-generated power in a highly efficient manner. This limits both range and target suppression abilities.
To cover the ultra-high-frequency (UHF) to X-band range, the band-appropriate, mechanically steered antenna arrays require time-consuming installation. This missionization structure only allows a Growler to offer EW capability for a single narrow-frequency range. The NGJ program is designed to reinvent the methods used for jamming technology to eliminate these drawbacks.
“This particular program is completely on the other end of the spectrum. It taps into state-of-the-art technologies from tip to tail. It has a very advanced set of technologies and leverages brand new designs and developments,” notes Lowery.
Several global factors are contributing to the drive to improve the jamming systems of modern warfighters. For instance, the power and sensitivity of potentially hostile radar systems is allowing for much longer range as a byproduct of their increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Today, more countries are producing large numbers of radar installations in dense configurations. The technological sophistication of these radar systems mitigates traditional stealth technology, due to improved signal-processing techniques and jamming avoidance.
To counter these feature enhancements, the NGJ upgrades the jamming capability of the EA-18G with GaN power/thermal-management systems. It uses the electronic scan nature of the AESAs to contend with numerous radar systems. At the same time, it increases back-end system capability with highly sophisticated computer control along with rapid reprogrammability.
The goal of the NGJ program is to equip the EA-18G airframe with full 360-deg. EW wideband capability that can be adapted to best handle situations that arise. (Courtesy of Raytheon)
The array modules include electronics that use GaN high-power amplifiers (HPAs). Those amplifiers drive the power signals through the circulators and apertures to the array elements. The AESAs can therefore form high-energy RF beams with advanced signal capability that can be steered by a highly advanced and rapidly reprogrammable computer.
“Due to the nature of it being an AESA, you can form many beams or a super beam with a lot of energy. It is agile, so you can dart from one system to another system on the ground almost instantaneously,” says Lowery.
The computers driving the NGJ system also communicate with the Growler’s common electronics unit (CEU), which has the enhanced ability to link with military-communications networks. In essence, this makes the NGJ system an extremely mobile, high-power, wideband, networked, and steerable long-range software-defined radio (SDR). There are many potential applications for the NGJ system, although currently the NGJ is geared specifically for jamming.
In addition, each pod is a fully self-sustaining system capable of generating its own highly efficient power, cooling, and transmission. The pods require no ship-generated power or resources other than instructions. An edge in efficiency is acquired by using a submerged ram-air turbine technique that enables air power to be extracted. The articulating cores can be completely enclosed during flight, which creates an extremely streamlined pod design for lower drag.
“When they are ready for a jamming mission, it can deploy taking in air and produce an excess of three times more power from the airstream than the ALQ-99,” Lowery says.
Once this air-based mechanical energy is converted to AC electrical energy, it is converted into high-voltage DC. Another conversion produces low-voltage DC power primarily for the GaN-based electronics driving the four arrays and the intelligent subsystems.
Working With GaN
Raytheon has been developing GaN technology for 15 years. In addition to delivering higher frequency, bandwidth, and power from RF devices that are defense-ready, GaN technology offers a much smaller footprint, larger wafer sizes, increased yields, and higher efficiencies. Currently, Raytheon is manufacturing its GaN circuits in its foundry in Andover, Mass. The Pentagon awarded this foundry with a manufacturing readiness level (MRL) of eight, which is the highest rating for any organization in the defense industry for that technology sector.
All of GaN technology’s strengths make it a very attractive solution for defense applications, which may have been a key factor in Raytheon winning the NGJ contract. Of course, the benefits of GaN technology don’t come without critical design considerations. Working with extremely high-frequency and high-power components in a very dense space requires the dissipating of heat that is produced by its operation, preventing poor efficiencies and device failure.
“If you can’t spread the heat, the device will burn itself out. Or you will at least have to back off the power and not use the device to its full potential,” says Lowery.
The cooling system used in the NGJ is based on a single-phase system similar to a car-radiator fluid system. But it boasts far greater sophistication and more modern design. This type of thermal-management system was chosen for its robust nature. It can operate reliably across a wide range of environmental conditions.
Additionally, the design lends itself to very high heat dissipation for its size. Stock cold plates with advanced adhesives are used to sink the thermal energy from the AESA. The thermal energy is further spread throughout a larger heat-dissipation system using an ethylene-glycol and water-mixture-based liquid.
The amount of heat flux generated by the latest GaN devices in such a small area could approach and exceed the heat flux of a nuclear explosion, making the heat-dissipating technology critically important. This is a more exaggerated problem with GaN devices compared to gallium-arsenide (GaAs) devices, due to GaN technology having power density and bandwidth capacity that is many times greater than GaAs. Research and development is still being invested in discovering the best performing adhesives and thermal spreaders.
The goal of the thermal-management system is to provide a secure fixture under extreme G-forces and excellent grounding while spreading the heat from the pinpoint generation zones of the GaN devices. Diamond thermal spreaders are of particular interest, as they have extremely high thermal conductivity. Using diamond as a semiconductor substrate for a GaN-on-diamond insulator process could solve many of the thermal stress issues that arise with GaN technology.
http://mwrf.com/datasheet/gan-based-aesas-enable-next-generation-jammer-pdf-download
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