Northrop to Begin Work on New EW Attack Systems for Navy Surface Ships

A Northrop Grumman official has confirmed the company is set to start development of new electronic warfare attack systems for the U.S. Navy’s surface ships under a contract awarded in late 2018, USNI News reported Tuesday.

The company in December received a $27.6M contract to manufacture two low rate initial production Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3 ship sets for the Navy.

The SEWIP Block III contract continues the company’s work with the Navy to replace the service’s aging AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare system.

In 2015, Northrop received a $267M contract to help in the test and development of the new electronic attack systems.

Brandon White, director of surface electronic warfare programs at Northrop, said SEWIP Block III is designed to be integrated not only into the Navy’s guided-missile destroyers and cruisers but in several types of ship classes.

“The capability was designed to be modular, so it can scale up and down in physical size as well as in power consumption,” he noted.

Under a separate contract, Northrop will integrate its Block III systems with Lockheed Martin’s SEWIP Block II antennas to provide the surface fleet with the ability to detect signals passively.

The Navy expects the entire SEWIP development to cost nearly $5.3B.