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A U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ-132 during Exercise Red Flag Alaska 25.
RENO, Nevada—RTX is already working on incorporating operational lessons into the Next-Generation Jammer Mid-Band system after the equipment’s initial deployments and as it awaits the service’s full-rate production decision.
The production milestone looms after the service late last year declared the so-called NGJ-MB had reached initial operational capability.
The company’s NGJ-MB will be the main electronic attack capability on the Navy’s E/A-18G Growlers, with two deployments already under its belt. The jammer, which Australia also is buying, has been used in U.S. operations in the Middle East to counter Houthi and Iranian threats.
“We got some great lessons learned off those,” Ernest Winston, associated director of electronic support solutions for RTX, says of the deployments. “As good as we think we make this, we don’t fully understand how good it is until we get it in the hands of the fleet.”
Feedback has primarily focused on how to maintain the jammer and reliability upgrades, along with potential software improvements.
“So, we’re taking in those lessons learned and seeing how we can apply those and make it even better,” Winston told Aviation Week at the Tailhook Symposium here. “We’ve got some great plans for advanced capabilities going forward.”
This includes potentially expanding the NGJ-MB’s capabilities, though Winston declined to provide specifics.
“What else can you do with an array with this kind of power, this kind of speed and this kind of capacity? So we take that feedback and ideas from the fleet and say: 'How do we implement those? Can we do those? Can we not?' Those are the things we are looking at.”
The Navy has said it is evolving the system to address an established threat that the current iteration cannot handle. The Navy last year awarded RTX’s Raytheon unit a contract to enhance the jamming pod into the Next-Generation Jammer Mid-Band Extended (NGJ-MBX).
Additionally, RTX has said it is looking at applications beyond the Growler including the F-15, B-52 and P-8. The Navy in May awarded RTX a $580 million contract for production lot five, and full fielding is expected in 2027.
The NGJ-MB will soon be complemented by the NGJ-Low Band, which recently was designated the ALQ-266. The system, being developed by L3Harris, is in its final design, and will cover threats that the MB system cannot.
The Navy has also expressed interest in a high-band element for NGJ, though that project remains in limbo.
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