electronic warfare

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., doing business as Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Sector, Bethpage, New York, is awarded a $697,029,788 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for system upgrades for the EA-18G system configuration sets, Airborne Electronic Attack and Electronic Warfare systems and final upgrades for the EA-6B system for the Navy and the government of Australia under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Pt. Mugu, California (50 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (29 percent); Bethpage, New York (20 percent); and Rolling Meadows, Illinois (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in October 2023.

Work is needed to improve temporal, spectral and information understanding within the layers of the cyber domain to facilitate useful cyber-spectral and information maneuver. These advances could be incorporated into tactics, techniques and procedures as well as tactical and operational systems to enhance the overall military commanders’ decision process to achieve information dominance.

Most of the tactical cyberspace domain is spectrum-dependent and administered solely at the physical layer. Currently, warfighters cannot comprehend, much less maneuver within, a space that is inaccessible to them because they are not in a dimensionality to understand it. They operate in a cyber-spectral flatland.

Northrup Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland, is awarded a $9,000,000 cost-only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-15-C-5319 for long lead material for Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 low-rate initial production. The SEWIP is an evolutionary acquisition and incremental development program to upgrade the existing AN/SLQ-32(V) electronic warfare system. SEWIP Block 3 will provide select Navy surface ships a scalable electronic warfare enterprise suite with improved electronic attack capabilities. Work will be performed in Linthicum, Maryland (98 percent); and Los Angeles, California (2 percent), and is expected to be completed by November 2020.

The U.S. Army is making multiple changes to the way it educates soldiers fighting in the cyber and electronic warfare domains. Rather than training soldiers on step-by-step processes, the service is educating personnel to come up with their own solutions on a technologically complex battlefield.

As electronic warfare is re-emerging as a key battlefield function, the commercial sector is striving to offer advanced technologies. Land-based systems are needed to combat both ground and airborne adversarial threats, while airborne electronic warfare tools provide maneuverable tactics to marque aircraft.

The focus of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC’s) dismounted electronic countermeasure system, known as Modi, has evolved from defeating radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (RCIEDs) to being a multi-function electronic warfare (EW) tool, explained Jerry Coburn, director, business development, SNC, during a recent interview with SIGNAL Magazine.

Raytheon Co., Fort Wayne, Indiana, was awarded a $49,025,060 modification (P00005) to contract W15P7T-14-D-C006 for the development of Electronic Warfare Program Management Tool, Capability Drop 4 (CD4) along with interim contractor support required for the maintenance and fielding of CD3 through CD4. Work will be performed in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with an estimated completion date of September 30, 2022. Fiscal year 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $1 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., McLean, Virginia, been awarded a $23,608,513 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development of the precise reference sensing for collaborative electronic warfare program.  The purpose of the will be to perform on-site positioning, navigation and timing technology development; prototyping; integration; and modeling, simulation, wargaming and analysis. Work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by June 29, 2023. The award is the result of a competitive acquisition.

U.S. Army officials are applying a streamlined acquisition process known as an IT box to offensive cyber technologies.

The IT box acquisition concept includes four sides: developing the capabilities requirement, determining development costs, analyzing sustainment and operations costs, and providing oversight and management of the product.

Maj. Gen. John George, USA, force development director, Office of the Army Chief of Staff G-8, told the the AFCEA Army Signal Conference in Springfield, Virginia, that the Army is focusing on the IT box concept pretty heavily.

To succeed in the battlespace of the future and to ensure combat superiority over peer adversaries, the U.S. military must be equipped with capabilities to defend information networks in cyberspace and to secure unimpeded access to the electromagnetic spectrum. Adversaries are developing cyber and electronic warfare capabilities to conduct information operations against U.S. systems that will likely threaten the speed and accuracy of military communications, intelligence and data sharing channels, while maliciously altering or stealing the information itself. These capabilities often have complementary effects, which means integrating cyber and electronic warfare could provide a stronger protection and attack capacity for U.S.