The Navy in August awarded a $587.4 million contract to L3Harris Technologies to develop the Next Generation Jammer Low Band system for select aircraft, according to a Navy release.
The jammer system will be “increasing the lethality” of 4th and 5th generation platforms and strike weapons, according to Rear Adm. John Lemmon, program executive officer for tactical aircraft programs.
The low band system under development is part of a larger system that will first augment and then replace the existing ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System on the EA-18G Growler, which is a specialized version of the F/A-18F Super Hornet with electromagnetic warfare equipment.
The added low band upgrade to the Grower will allow the aircraft to defeat more adversary systems. It is scheduled to reach early operational capability in 2029, according to a release.
In addition to the jamming system contract, the Navy also awarded a $16 million bid to Fuse Integration to equip the company’s Fuse CORE 4.0 virtualized network system on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.
The Northrop Grumman-built Hawkeye is a battle management command and control platform, used to orchestrate multi-platform information sharing.
The $16 million upgrade will improve reliability and maintainability by replacing “bulky and obsolete routers,” the release said.
It will also add the ability to host applications the current system can’t handle, according to Shawn Thompson, the assistant program manager of systems engineering for the E-2D program.
“CORE 4.0 enables an additional layer of cyber-security for the platform by hosting new firewall applications as part of the Beyond Line-of-Sight upgrade program for the E-2D,” Thompson said.
Last year the United States approved a $1.4 billion sale to Japan of the E-2D Hawkeye, with its radars, navigation and display systems included, Defense News reported.
The Pentagon modified that contract to $1.5 billion this year. Japan has requested nine aircraft under the contract.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
