Brenda Marie Rivers
Raytheon and Northrop Grumman officials have said that the next-generation jammer pods they are developing for the U.S. Navy will feature self-contained power supplies and the capacity to switch frequencies, C4ISRnet reported Monday.
The Navy selected Raytheon to develop the Next Generation Jammer mid-band pod in 2016. Northrop secured the contract for the low-band pod and partnered with Comtech Telecommunications and L3Harris in 2018.
The service has earmarked funding for the high-band pod as part of the NGJ effort, which is focused on replacing the ALQ-99 pods for EA-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft.
Ernest Winston, senior manager of strategy and business development at Raytheon“™s space and airborne systems segment, told C4ISRnet that the company“™s recent flight testing of the mid-band pod on an airborne platform is a “huge milestone“ after a series of lab tests. The pod“™s testing on a Growler is scheduled for the second quarter of 2020.
According to Tim Murphy, manager of naval aviation campaigns at Northrop, the team“™s demonstration efforts for the low-band pod are slated to continue until spring.
The Navy expects to issue an initial operational capability designation for the mid-band in 2022 and the low-band in 2025.
