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NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland—BAE Systems launched a family of passive radio frequency (RF) devices on Sept. 15 in a move that could spread sensing and targeting capabilities to thousands of munitions and drones.
The Shadow EW family adds a new layer of compact and relatively low-cost electronic warfare (EW) systems at a time when the Pentagon is investing in multiple programs for developing mass-produced weapons.
Some variants of the Shadow EW family would enable a single drone or munition to detect, identify, geolocate and track an enemy based on their emissions, Josh Niedzwiecki, BAE’s general manger for Electronic Combat Solutions, told reporters at the AFA Air, Space and Cyber conference here.
Niezwiecki compared the capability of the Shadow EW devices to BAE’s passive RF seeker on the Lockheed Martin AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), but costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit instead of millions.
“This is leveraging the emergence of some of the commercial chipsets that are out there, but then integrating them into very specific architectures that are conducive to electronic warfare applications,” Niezwiecki said.
BAE engineers also have adapted the commercial chips to endure the harsh conditions of flying aboard a drone, missile or glide bomb, he added.
Finally, BAE will produce the Shadow EW components at a factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which was sized and designed to produce hundreds of thousands of GPS receivers a year, Niezwiecki said.
“The reason we picked that factory is because they are tremendously efficient at building high-volume production,” he said.
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