electronic warfare

Less than two months on the job, Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, USAF, commander of the 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), is already shaping the structure of the service’s new information warfare Numbered Air Force (NAF). Stood up in October, the NAF combines the service’s cyber operations; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities; electronic warfare and information operations, including capabilities folded in from the 24th and 25th Air Forces.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Virginia, is awarded a $57,462,554 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to a previously awarded contract N00024-17-C-6327 to exercise options for engineering support services for the Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare Increment One Block One (I1B1) Systems full-rate production in support of the Expeditionary Warfare program office. This option exercise is for Engineering Support Services for Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (JCREW) to introduce new technologies; address diminishing material and depot repairs to keep JCREW systems viable for future production; and maintain operational readiness for the field.  Work

Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia, has been awarded a $245,994,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for electronic warfare and avionics system support Georgia Tech Applied Research University and Affiliated Research Center. This contract provides for essential engineering, research and development capabilities and services for the development and sustainment of systems. Work will be performed at Atlanta, Georgia, and is expected to be completed by July 8, 2029. Future orders may include foreign military sales to multiple countries. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition.

On May 17, the 53rd Wing of the U.S. Air Force at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida celebrated the establishment of its new 87th Electronic Warfare Squadron that will join the wing’s 53rd Electronic Warfare Group.

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Syracuse, New York, is awarded a $27,510,334 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-09-C-6247 for the procurement of fiscal year 2019 electronic warfare AN/BLQ-10 kits and spares to support program requirements. Work will be performed in Syracuse, New York (99 percent); and Manassas, Virginia (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by October 2022. Fiscal year 2019 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $27,510,334 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

Bell Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, was awarded $10,656,686 for modification P00002 to a previously issued delivery order (N0001918F1645) placed against basic ordering agreement, N00019-17-G-0002. This modification exercises the option to procure 12 A-Kits to retrofit legacy fleet aircraft with the AN/APR-39D(V)2, AN/AAQ-24B(V)27, and the ALE-47 Power Performance Computing, upgrading the MV-22 from Configuration A to Configuration C. In addition, this modification provides for the procurement of 12 APR-39D(V)2 A-Kits to install the AN/APR-39D (V)2 system on any of the 48 previously Integrated Aircraft Survivability Equipment retrofitted aircraft, upgrading the MV-22 from Configuration B to Configuration C.

Data from mobile device signals such as GSM may be an untapped resource for signals intelligence on the battlefield. Although the payload of a communication system is encoded, information about the nature of the communication that is included in the GSM signal is not and should not be overlooked. This information, known as metadata, could prove to be an important tool for warfighters, experts say.

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.