Navy’s New EW Jammer to be Ready in 2022

Navy’s New EW Jammer to be Ready in 2022
Navy’s New EW Jammer to be Ready in 2022

FARNBOROUGH AIR SHOW The U.S. Navy hopes to start flying its Next Generation Jammer some time next year, though the system won’t reach operational capability until 2022, said Navy Capt. Michael Orr, program manager for the service’s electronic attack systems. As it stands now the Navy’s principal airborne electronic attack systems relies on technology developed…

F-35 Drives Closer Integration With Allies: Aussie Air Chief

F-35 Drives Closer Integration With Allies: Aussie Air Chief
F-35 Drives Closer Integration With Allies: Aussie Air Chief

WASHINGTON: The F-35 Joint Strike fighter will  drive deeper and more useful military connections between Australia, the United States and regional partners such as Japan and Malaysia, the head of Australia’s air force said today. “This aircraft has redefined joint” for Australia, Air Marshal Leo Davies said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies this morning, accelerating policy…

Mattis Review Only Looks At F-35C Vs. Super Hornet; F-35 Cost Study Separate

Mattis Review Only Looks At F-35C Vs. Super Hornet; F-35 Cost Study Separate
Mattis Review Only Looks At F-35C Vs. Super Hornet; F-35 Cost Study Separate

WASHINGTON: Of the three variants of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, only the carrier-launched F-35C is at risk of being replaced by Boeing’s F-18 Super Hornet, the Marine Corps’s top pilot said today. It’s not on the table to substitute Hornets for either the land-based F-35A variant or the vertical-takeoff-and-landing F-35B, Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy Commandant for…

Magic Carpet Ride: Navy Software Eases Carrier Landings

Magic Carpet Ride: Navy Software Eases Carrier Landings
Magic Carpet Ride: Navy Software Eases Carrier Landings

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER: So easy, a journalist can do it. That could be the slogan for the Navy’s new Magic Carpet software, which simplifies the most stressful task in aviation: landing on deck of an aircraft carrier. I’d never pretend I could fly a real plane. But in a simulator, with Navy engineer Buddy…

Navy, OSD Studies Could Save Boeing’s F-18 Line

Navy, OSD Studies Could Save Boeing’s F-18 Line
Navy, OSD Studies Could Save Boeing’s F-18 Line

CAPITOL HILL: Pentagon leaders are pushing hard to keep up the momentum of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Many in the Navy, though, still look longingly back at the Boeing-built F-18 Hornet, whose St. Louis production line faces closure in 2017. There are two independent trends that together could save the St. Louis line and the Navy’s favorite plane. The first…

Pentagon Launches Electronic Warfare Study: Growler Line At Stake

Pentagon Launches Electronic Warfare Study: Growler Line At Stake
Pentagon Launches Electronic Warfare Study: Growler Line At Stake

CAPITOL HILL: The Pentagon has launched a wide-ranging study of electronic warfare, looking across the services at major platforms such as the EA-18G Growler and the F-35’s three versions. “We are doing right now in the Department of Defense a study that looks at all electronic attack[:] what is the situation in electromagnetic warfare across…

Navy Forges New EW Strategy: Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare

Navy Forges New EW Strategy: Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare
Navy Forges New EW Strategy: Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare

WASHINGTON: The Navy is crafting a battle plan to retake control of the electromagnetic spectrum, which the Pentagon’s chief of research says we’ve lost. First of all, if adversaries can exploit rapid advances in commercial electronics to run circles around America’s multi-billion dollar arsenal, our slow-moving procurement process needs to be more open to civilian innovation.…

The $10B Next Generation Jammer Is ‘On Track, On Schedule’

The $10B Next Generation Jammer Is ‘On Track, On Schedule’
The $10B Next Generation Jammer Is ‘On Track, On Schedule’

LONDON: Farnborough is an air show, but many of the briefings scheduled by American companies this year focus on electronic warfare and missiles — not airplanes. Raytheon, winner of the Next Generation Jammer competition, and the other four defense giants know that much of the money to be made in the next decade will come…

Gen. Mike Hostage On The F-35; No Growlers Needed When War Starts

Gen. Mike Hostage On The F-35; No Growlers Needed When War Starts
Gen. Mike Hostage On The F-35; No Growlers Needed When War Starts

For years, the news about the most expensive conventional weapons system in US history, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has been driven by its soaring costs, technical problems and schedule screw-ups. The government and Congress and the public rarely speak about what the F-35 will do, how effectively it could destroy an enemy’s air defenses, shoot down…

‘A God’s Eye View Of The Battlefield:’ Gen. Hostage On The F-35

‘A God’s Eye View Of The Battlefield:’ Gen. Hostage On The F-35
‘A God’s Eye View Of The Battlefield:’ Gen. Hostage On The F-35

For years, the news about the most expensive conventional weapons system in US history, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has been driven by its enormous cost, design, and schedule screw-ups. The Pentagon and Congress and the public have rarely spoken about what the F-35 would do, how effectively it could destroy an enemy’s air defenses,…

F-35’s Stealth, EW Not Enough, So JSF And Navy Need Growlers; Boeing Says 50-100 More

F-35’s Stealth, EW Not Enough, So JSF And Navy Need Growlers; Boeing Says 50-100 More
F-35’s Stealth, EW Not Enough, So JSF And Navy Need Growlers; Boeing Says 50-100 More

WASHINGTON: Stealth is being outpaced by software, radar and computing power, so electronic warfare and cyber attacks are growing in importance. While the F-35 may possess excellent — if circumscribed — electronic attack and cyber capabilities, it needs help from the Navy’s EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft. That means, Boeing and the Navy are arguing,…

Navy Cagey, Boeing Cocky, Over F-18’s Future

Navy Cagey, Boeing Cocky, Over F-18’s Future
Navy Cagey, Boeing Cocky, Over F-18’s Future

PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION: “My job is to preserve options and that’s what I do,” said Capt. Francis Morley, Navy program manager for the F-18 fighter family. Will the Navy press ahead to buy more F-18s in the face of what seems pretty determined opposition from the Office of Secretary of Defense, eager to…

Navy Bets On ‘Baby Steps’ To Improve Electronic Warfare; F-35 Jamming Not Enough

PENTAGON: While the Air Force and the Marines stake their future on a great leap forward to the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Navy is taking what one officer called “baby steps” into the future: a careful, incremental upgrade of electronic warfare systems to jam enemy radar instead of just hiding from it. The…

Navy’s Move To Growler 70% Complete; Build-Up Reflects Stealth Doubts

WHIDBEY ISLAND, WASHINGTON: “Every two weeks, we get another Growler,” Cmdr. Christopher Middleton said at the Navy’s electronic warfare hub here. The Navy target is to buy 114 EA-18G Growler aircraft. And it’s those Growler aircraft that will be the cutting edge of future Naval strikes against future “anti-access area denial” defenses like those being…