Electronic warfare and radar interoperability demoed with Northrop Grumman
NewsSeptember 13, 2021
FALLS CHURCH, Va. The Northrop Grumman Corporation Next Generation Electronic Warfare (NGEW) system joined the AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) at Exercise Northern Lightning in its first flight test. Officials claim NGEW and SABR demonstrated full interoperability in a realistic and contested electromagnetic spectrum environment.
With SABR engaging multiple air and ground targets, the company claims that NGEW detected and identified a range of advanced threats, employing advanced jamming techniques capable of defeating those threats when required.
At the exercise, the two systems faced a high-density radio frequency environment generated by the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center, Joint Threat Emitters. These threat emitters allowed Northern Lightning participants to fly missions under conditions representative of near-peer electromagnetic spectrum environments.
NGEW leverages an open-systems, ultra-wideband architecture, intended to provide the instantaneous bandwidth needed to defeat modern threats. This F-16 system is part of a mature product line of electronic warfare capabilities designed to be adapted to virtually any platform. Officials claim an F-16 will fly with the NGEW system in the summer of 2022.
