The Battle For The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Graham Warwick

Boeing EA-18G Growler

Raytheon

Raytheon’s ALQ-249 Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) Increment 1 midband pod is to replace the ALQ-99 pods on U.S. Navy Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft beginning in 2021. The pod houses two AESAs with different transmitters and apertures for standoff jamming of integrated air defense systems. NGJ will integrate with the EA-18’s Northrop Grumman ASQ-218 receiver and Raytheon APG-73 AESA radar, which has a jamming mode. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet has the same AESA, plus Raytheon ALR-67(V)3 RWR, Harris ALQ-214(V)4/5 onboard jammer and BAE ALE-55 fiber-optic towed decoy.

 

Saab JAS 39E/F Gripen

SAAB

Saab’s JAS 39E/F Gripen, scheduled to enter service in 2019, will be equipped with its new Arexis EW system. This is an integrated RWR, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and ECM concept based on ultrawideband digital receivers, DRFM devices, high-power gallium-nitride AESA jammer transmitters and interferometric direction-finding systems. Arexis includes an electronic attack pod aimed at jamming lower frequencies used by anti-stealth radars. The EW system will work with the Gripen E’s Leonardo Raven ES-05 AESA radar. Gripen can carry MBDA’s BriteCloud deployable DRFM jammer, dispensed from a flare cartridge.

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

Lockheed Martin

BAE Systems’ ASQ-239 digital offensive and defensive EW system on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter provides integrated all-aspect, broadband radar warning and geolocation, targeting support, and radio frequency and infrared countermeasures. Lockheed says the system has “10 times the effective radiated power of any legacy fighter” for standoff and stand-in jamming, and it is designed to operate simultaneously without interfering with the RWR or the Northrop Grumman APG-81 AESA radar, which has electronic attack capabilities, including generating false targets, high-power jamming and network attack.

Boeing F-15 Eagle

Saudi Press Agency

Beginning in 2022 with the F-15E fleet, U.S. Air Force Boeing F-15s are to be upgraded with the BAE Systems Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (Epawss), replacing the 1970s-vintage ALQ-135 ECM system. Epawss is based on BAE’s ALQ-239 Digital Electronic Warfare System, fitted to Saudi Arabian F-15SAs, and provides offensive and defensive EW capability with broadband radar warning and geolocation, 50% more chaff and flare capacity, and simultaneous jamming without interfering with the Raytheon APG-82(V)1 and APG-63(V) AESA radars being retrofitted to F-15Es and F-15C/Ds, respectively.

Sukhoi Su-57

United Aircraft Corp.

Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57, scheduled to enter service in 2019, integrates radar and EW so they share some of the many apertures distributed around the stealthy airframe. Developed by the Knirti research institute, the L402 Himalayas ECM system has its own arrays, one in a large sting between the engines, and uses the L-band arrays in the wing leading-edge extensions that are part of the N036 Byelka AESA radar system. In addition to these apertures, the N036, developed by the Tikhomirov NIIP institute, has the main X-band AESA in the nose and two small side-looking, X-band arrays on the forward fuselage.

Advances in commercial electronics are reshaping the electronic warfare (EW) arena. The commercial availability of advanced electronics is driving the proliferation of active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars with digital architectures and agile waveforms that are harder to defeat, and digital radio-frequency memory (DRFM) devices that enable advanced countermeasures. The result is renewed Western investment in EW development to bring digital technology to all parts of the system from radar-warning receivers (RWR) to electronic countermeasures (ECM).

 
Graham Warwick

Graham leads Aviation Week's coverage of technology, focusing on engineering and technology across the aerospace industry, with a special focus on identifying technologies of strategic importance to aviation, aerospace and defense.

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