Raytheon To Develop Next Generation Jammer For Boeing EA-18G Aircraft

Raytheon has won a contract worth $1 billion from the US Navy to develop  15 Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) engineering development model pods for the EA-18G aircraft.  

“Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California, is being awarded a $1,012,928,257 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the design, manufacture, integration, demonstration and test of 15 Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) engineering development model pods in support of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the NGJ program,” the US Department of Defense announced Wednesday.

The NGJ system is a pod-based tactical jammer that replaces the 40-plus-year ALQ-99 jammer system on the EA-18G aircraft. The NGJ is built with open architecture technology using Raytheon's airborne radio frequency systems, jamming techniques, combat-proven antenna array technology, and sophisticated, solid-state electronics. It aims to meet the navy's electronic warfare mission requirements and offer a cost-effective open systems architecture for future upgrades.

The awarded contract also provides for the manufacture of 14 NGJ aero-mechanical test pods, which will be used to verify aircraft flying qualities and pod safe separation from the host aircraft; provide equipment needed for system integration laboratories; and mature manufacturing processes.

Work is expected to be completed in December 2020.