Date Posted: 06-Feb-2025
Key points
- In 2024 the AN/ALQ-249(V)1 NGJ-MB jammer achieved IOC and saw first use in combat
- L3Harris was contracted to develop the NGJ-LB variant pod
The multiphase, multivendor programme to give the US Navy (USN) and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack (AEA) aircraft a Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) suite achieved three significant milestones during the second half of 2024.
In August 2024 L3Harris was contracted by US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to develop the NGJ Low Band (NGJ-LB). This ended a nearly four-year hiatus during which a previous award to L3Harris was challenged and ultimately annulled after multiple protests from a rival bidder were upheld.
An EA-18G Growler assigned to VAQ-133 launches from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). VAQ-133 is the first squadron to receive the NGJ-MB pod. (US Navy)
The next month, Raytheon – which has been developing the NGJ Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) system since 2014 – was funded by NAVAIR to develop an engineering change enabling the NGJ-MB pod to address an emergent high-frequency threat. Moreover, in December 2024 NAVAIR declared an initial operational capability (IOC) for the NGJ-MB pod following a first front-line deployment by Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 133.
Long in the making, development of the NGJ suite is being pursued to replace the AN/ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System (TJS), which is increasingly difficult to support. Employing the latest digital software and electronically scanned array technologies, NGJ confers the EA-18G with the ability to deliver AEA effects with increased power and longer range. In addition, the system architecture was designed to enable rapid hardware and software updates to keep pace with evolving threats.
Although conceived to meet USN requirements, the NGJ programme has become a bilateral endeavour between the US and Australian governments. Under this co-operative partnership arrangement, Australia has committed funding to develop, produce, and sustain the NGJ-MB and NGJ-LB variants.
Growler evolution
Developed as a replacement for the EA-6B Prowler, the EA-18G Growler is a custom adaptation of the two-seat F/A-18F Block II Super Hornet carrierborne strike fighter, modified for electronic warfare (EW)/enemy defence suppression missions.
In this role, the Growler's podded, external carriage AEA capability is employed to disrupt, deny, and degrade hostile radar systems and communications networks across a swathe of the electromagnetic spectrum, with the intent of breaking the adversary ‘kill chain' and enabling the ingress/egress of strike packages into contested airspace. The EA-18G can also use anti-radiation missiles to deliver kinetic effects against threat radars (nine weapon stations provide for the external carriage of weapons and jamming pods).
Central to the EA-18G Growler's ability to detect and ‘attack' in the electromagnetic realm are the AN/ALQ-218(V)2 radio frequency (RF) receiver system (with antennas in wingtip pods and processing in the avionics pallet) and the AN/ALQ-227(V)1 Communications Countermeasures Set (CCS). The AN/ALQ-218(V)2 is a wideband receiver system providing identification, precision location, and targeting of radar emitters; the CCS supports interception, geolocation, and jamming of communications frequencies.
An EA-18G Growler flies over the Aegean Sea in support of enhanced air patrols. (US Navy)
EA-18G production deliveries to the USN commenced in June 2008, with IOC declared in September 2009. First used operationally as part of Operation ‘Odyssey Dawn' over Libya in 2011, the Growler has seen service in several theatres including, most recently, the Red Sea and Yemen.
The USN has received 160 EA-18G Growler aircraft off the Boeing production line, with the last being delivered in 2019. A total of 16 USN squadrons operate the aircraft; of these, four are expeditionary squadrons deployed globally to support US Air Force expeditionary wings, allied/coalition task forces, Marine Aircraft Groups, and USN strike groups.
Another 13 EA-18Gs have been delivered to the RAAF (the last as an attrition replacement for an aircraft that suffered a major engine fire in January 2018). These serve with No 6 Squadron based at RAAF Base Amberley near Brisbane.
With the EA-18G planned to remain in service into the mid-2040s, several upgrade efforts are under way beginning with the Growler Capability Modification (GCM) programme.
Commencing at Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island, Washington, in March 2021, GCM is a multi-year effort comprised of various engineering change proposals (ECPs) designed to maintain commonality with the F/A-18E/F Block III.
Another variant is the Growler Block II (GB2). Currently in development, the GB2 consists of a foundational spiral upgrade that will implement enabling infrastructure and architecture for incremental capability improvements, according to NAVAIR. The AN/ALQ-218(V)2 AEA Systems Enhancement (ASE) is a combination of hardware/software upgrades that enable the transition to Growler Block II.
The GB2 Phase 1 upgrade of the Electronic Attack Unit (EAU), known as Next Generation EAU (NGEAU), provides a capability that enhances the EA-18G's ability to autonomously process and respond to unknown signals in an extremely dense electromagnetic spectrum environment. NGEAU implements a so-called Reactive Electronic Attack Measures capability exploiting advanced machine learning algorithms to enable effects against agile, adaptive, and unknown hostile radars or radar modes, according to the USN.
GB2 Phase 2, also known as Beowulf, will integrate an advanced multifunction array (MFA) in the inboard leading-edge flaps to augment existing AN/ALQ-218(V)2 functionality and capability. The GB2 MFA serves as technology development and risk reduction to incorporate MFAs on multiple future platforms.
Another development associated with EA-18G capability growth is the move, commencing in fiscal year (FY) 2025, to a more agile model for system software updates. Whereas the System Configuration Set (SCS) has traditionally been the subject of so-called ‘H-builds' released at two-year intervals, the programme is now transitioning to a Scaled Agile Framework to deliver smaller releases more frequently as part of continuous integration, delivery, and deployment, said the navy.
Alongside the GB2 upgrades, Boeing has been contracted through NAVAIR to embody the engineering changes to the EA-18G necessary to attach, integrate, and utilise NGJ capabilities. These have been let on a sole-source basis given Boeing's unique technical and engineering knowledge of the EA-18G weapons system.
AN/ALQ-99 legacy
For the first 15 years of its operational career, the EA-18G has relied on the AN/ALQ-99 TJS to deliver AEA effects. Evolved from the EA-6B Improved Capability III programme, the AN/ALQ-99 TJS is an external carriage capability incorporating both mid-band and low-band jamming pods. According to NAVAIR, the EA-18G can carry up to five TJS pods (two under each wing and one beneath the fuselage) although an outload of up to three pods (two underwing, one centreline) is more typical.
It is noteworthy that the original version of the AN/ALQ-99 TJS achieved IOC as far back as 1971 – several ‘lifetimes' ago in terms of electronics technology. The TJS has, over time, been the subject of multiple upgrades to keep the capability relevant to evolving and emerging threats: the latest engineering change publicised by the USN, and due to start rolling out in 2025, is modified low-band transmitters to replace certain ageing components and enable prosecution of Band 4 (0.5–1 GHz) threats.
However, the USN has for some time recognised that the performance of the AN/ALQ-99 TJS had diminished over time because of advances in threat radar systems, particularly complex emitters using advanced electronic protection techniques to overcome legacy jamming. Moreover, the supportability of the system on the front line is becoming challenging as spares sources diminish.
To redress these shortfalls, NAVAIR in the early 2000s began initial concept development for the overarching NGJ programme to first augment, and eventually replace, the AN/ALQ-99 TJS suite. Work completed under the leadership of NAVAIR's AEA Systems Program Office (PMA-234) highlighted fundamental shortfalls in AN/ALQ-99 with respect to scalability, flexibility, and supportability; limits to the number of simultaneous targets; and issues around interoperability and availability.
Meanwhile, the USN saw the need to embrace modern technologies – arrays, exciters, and power amplifiers among others – to improve performance; reduce cost, size, weight, and power; or both. It also identified that advantages forthcoming from the adoption of a modular, scalable, open-system architecture are able to support future growth and platform adaptability.
An NGJ Analysis of Alternatives guidance, dated July 2008, set out the requirement for a new jammer suite to replace the capability provided by the AN/ALQ-99 jamming pods. The AEA capability envisaged of the NGJ programme broke down into three mission areas. First, stand-off jamming from outside the engagement envelope of adversary air defences to support deep strike; second, in a modified escort role (operating outside known surface-to-air missile ‘rings'); and third, in support of irregular warfare (targeting communications and non-conventional weapons in support of ground forces).
The NGJ acquisition strategy subsequently developed and promulgated by PMA-234 in 2012 spilt the requirement into three standalone packages – or increments – each covering a different portion of the frequency spectrum: Increment 1 would address mid-band emitters as a priority; Increment 2 would follow to prosecute low-band radars and communications; and Increment 3 would target high-band emitters.
Increment 1 became NGJ-MB, Increment 2 was redesignated NGJ-LB, and Increment 3 was identified as NGJ-High Band (NGJ-HB). NAVAIR identified that the Increment 1 and Increment 2 requirements would demand separate podded solutions. However, it was foreseen that a ‘missionised' mid-band pod could offer a growth path to a high-band capability with suitable arrays.
For more information, please see Feature: USN's Next Generation Jammer aims to field digital-era electronic attack
