FLIGHTTRIALSRaytheon completed initial ight
trials of its Next-Generation Jammer
(NGJ) system in 2014. A series of trials
culminated in a live ight on October
16 with the NGJ aboard a Gulfstream
III testbed from Calspan.
Flying out of Point Mugu, California,
the initial three-hour test ight
was conducted over the NAWS
China Lake electronic warfare
ranges to assess ‘aircraft integration,
jamming techniques, beam agility,
array-transmit power and jammer
management’.
Rick Yuse said, ‘This was the rst
time that we tested all the sub-
systems together in an integrated,
end-to-end [electronic warfare]
system against real-world threats. The
system included a high-gain, high-
power active electronically scanned
array [AESA], an all-digital, scalable,
reprogrammable receiver/techniques
generator, and a self-contained power
generation system. We ran a series
of tests and each time, the ight
demonstration system automatically
followed the threat’s every move.’thought to generate huge amounts of
heat. Indeed, heat concerns are believed
to have undermined previous plans to
t a bespoke version of the Raytheon
system in the F-35B weapons bay for the
US Marine Corps to facilitate an electronic
attack EA-35.
The navy completed Milestone B for
mid-band, allowing NGJ to move into
the engineering and manufacturing
development (EMD) phase. On April 14,
2016, the service awarded Raytheon a
$1-billion sole source contract for EMD
for Increment 1. Raytheon is delivering
15 EMD pods for mission systems testing
and quali cation, and 14 aeromechanical
pods for airworthiness certi cation. The
NGJ contract also covers designing and
delivering simulators and hardware to
government labs and support for ight-
testing and system integration.
Rick Yuse, president of Raytheon Space
and Airborne Systems said, ‘NGJ is a smart
pod that provides today’s most advanced
electronic attack technology, one that
can easily be adapted to changing threat
environments. That level of sophistication
provides our war ghters with the
technological advantage required to
successfully prosecute their mission and
return home safely.’Given Raytheon’s progress with the
mid-band pod under the rst increment
of NGJ, the low- and high-band jamming
pod contract awards are now becoming
a focus for industry. Northrop Grumman
is set to go head-to-head with Raytheon
in order to give the Growler its full suite
of capabilities.Above right: The
Gulfstream fl ying
testbed during a
three-hour test
fl ight with the
NGJ pod under
the fuselage in- Raytheon/
Jim Haseltine
http://www.combataircraft.net // October 2018 33