Lockheed’s Joe Ottaviano on Advantages of Block 2 Electronic Warfare System Upgrade for Navy

A Lockheed Martin official said the Block 2 update to the U.S. Navy’s shipboard electronic warfare system under the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program could help the service improve detection of various threats such as missiles and hostile electronic signals, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.

Joe Ottaviano, a director at Lockheed’s rotary and mission systems, said the SEWIP Block 2 upgrade seeks to increase the capability of the AN/SLQ-32(V) EW system.

“The number of threats and signals out there is increasing exponentially, and the system has to be able to handle those more complicated threats. It also brings the system into the digital age as the first open-architecture EW system that the Navy had moved on,” Ottaviano said.

Block 2 features a wider radio-frequency range that would provide the service situational awareness capability across the electromagnetic domain.

“That’s a very powerful capability, in that it enables the combat system to be looking everywhere all at once,” Ottaviano noted.

Lockheed is performing Block 2 updates to the Navy’s AN/SLQ-32 systems under a potential $184M contract modification.