Saab flies new electronic attack pod on Gripen for first time

Saab flew its Electronic Attack Jammer Pod (EAJP) on the Gripen combat aircraft for the first time on 4 November, the company announced.

The Saab EAJP pod flew on the Gripen for the first time on 4 November. (Saab)

According to Saab, the pod’s interfaces with the aircraft’s hardware and software, as well as cockpit control and monitoring, were tested during the flight. “The purpose of Saab’s new EAJP pod is to protect aircraft against radars by sophisticated jamming functions, thereby blocking the opponent’s ability to attack them,” the company added.

The EAJP is part of Saab’s Arexis family of electronic warfare (EW) systems, and the test marked the latest milestone since the system was first briefed to reporters earlier in the year.

Speaking at the company’s production facility in Linköping in late May, Petter Bedoire, Saab’s head of marketing and sales for EW, said that the podded system that is aimed at affording the Gripen E/F (or any other modern combat aircraft) an electronic attack (EA) capability analogous to the Boeing EA-18G Growler aircraft.

The Arexis EA Jammer Pod provides forward and aft coverage to support the ingress, strike, and egress of a package of strike aircraft. It utilises a VHF/UHF surveillance and acquisition radar in the L and S bands that incorporates gallium nitride (GaN) AESA technology.

With flight trials of the pod now underway, Saab has noted a 12-month lead time for any customer wishing to adopt it.