{"id":33231,"date":"2023-01-25T19:40:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T19:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2023\/01\/25\/after-rimpac-northrop-eyes-additional-at-sea-tests-for-smaller-jammer\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:49:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:49:37","slug":"after-rimpac-northrop-eyes-additional-at-sea-tests-for-smaller-jammer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/electronic-warfare\/2023\/01\/25\/after-rimpac-northrop-eyes-additional-at-sea-tests-for-smaller-jammer\/","title":{"rendered":"After RIMPAC, Northrop eyes additional at-sea tests for smaller jammer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Northrop Grumman is quietly crafting an electronic-warfare suite designed to fit aboard smaller vessels to shield them from an array of future threats, as the U.S. Navy works to disperse its forces across greater watery expanses and make them harder to spot, target and kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Virginia-based company plans to keep testing its scaled-down prototype electronic-attack package, known as the Ultra-Lite EA System, throughout this year. It was extensively evaluated over the summer aboard an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer at the Rim of the Pacific<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest maritime military exercise, executives told C4ISRNET, and will likely return to the sea for additional trials by the end of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn general, this area of electronic warfare that we\u2019re focused on is around putting electronic-warfare systems onto ships, Navy ships. And those systems help defend the ships against whatever threats that they face,\u201d Mike Meaney, Northrop\u2019s vice president of land and maritime sensors, said in a Jan. 16 interview. \u201cIt could be other radars, it could be missile seekers and anti-ship missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very dangerous world today, from a warfighting perspective,\u201d he added, \u201cand our adversaries, our peer adversaries, have very threatening capabilities in the maritime domain<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic warfare, in general, represents a battle for control of the electromagnetic spectrum, used for communications, weapons guidance and more, which U.S. defense officials say is paramount in a potential fight with China or Russia. Electronic capabilities like the Ultra-Lite can help militaries detect, deceive, disrupt and even destroy one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northrop is leaning into years of experience with the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program, or SEWIP, to realize the smaller, more-quickly installed Ultra-Lite jammer. The company is currently tapped by the Navy for what is known as SEWIP Block 3<\/a>, which affords a non-kinetic means of swatting down anti-ship missiles, among other abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\t