US Navy $172Mln Contract Launches Production of Mid-Band Signal Jammer

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The first production lot of a mid-range signal jammer will begin with award of a $171.6 million US Navy Contract, Raytheon announced on Thursday.

"With its power and ability to jam multiple radars simultaneously, NGJ-MB [Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band] will fundamentally change the way the Navy conducts airborne electronic attack," Raytheon Vice President of Electronic Warfare Systems Annabel Flores said in a press release.

NGJ-MB is the Navy's advanced electronic attack system that offensively denies, disrupts and degrades enemy technology, including air-defense systems and communications, the release said.

The system uses the latest digital, software-based and Active Electronically Scanned Array technologies, which allows operators to non-kinetically attack significantly more targets and at greater distances than with existing countermeasures, the release also said.

The @USNavy continues to make great strides for our warfighters. Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band capability received Milestone C approval to proceed with Low Rate Initial Production. #NavyReadiness pic.twitter.com/K3Q4M0mMd8

— NAVAIR (@NAVAIRNews) June 30, 2021

The $171.6 million contract award follows last week's decision to advance the program into the production and deployment phase, the release added.

NGJ-MB previously completed more than 145 hours of developmental flight-testing, plus over 3,100 hours of lab testing at naval bases in the US states of California and Maryland, according to the release.