Northrop Grumman eyes new EW family of systems

Northrop Grumman's AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) (Northrop Grumman)

Northrop Grumman is weighing development options for a new electronic warfare (EW) family of systems, building upon the open system architecture underpinning the company's AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS).

The company is evaluating various platform applications for the EW open system architecture built into IVEWS, including potential EW systems developed for rotary wing aircraft, fixed-wing fighters, cargo airlifters, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) under the family of systems (FoS) construct, Janes has learned.

The open systems architecture on which the potential EW FoS will be based “offers the bandwidth needed to detect and defeat the most sophisticated [electromagnetic] threats”, said Northrop Grumman.

The open architecture technology, “shared across the company's family of EW systems, which includes capabilities for UAS, fighters, airlifters and rotary wing aircraft” is designed to “protect virtually any platform or mission”, the company added.

Programme officials are also moulding the future FoS with an eye toward potential foreign military sales (FMS), and the FoS will consist of “fully exportable systems [so] ... that international partner nations [can] maintain commonality with U.S. programs of record”, the company told Janes .

Phil Louden, IVEWS director at Northrop Grumman, declined to go into specifics regarding platforms that could field elements of the new EW FoS. “We're looking at applications for EW survivability across many different domains. Attritables, small [unmanned aerial vehicles], rotary wing, fixed wings, and large aircraft,” he said during a 6 May interview. But Louden did note the company has already developed EW suite variants for several air-breathing platforms currently in service, in addition to the IVEWS programme.