Concept art of an EA-18G carrying Raytheon-developed AN’ALQ-249 NGJMB pods. (US NAVY)

The US Navy has awarded additional contracts to Northrop Grumman and L3 Technologies to expand the development scope of the service’s AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer – low band (NGJ-LB) program.

The three-phased NGJ is being developed to replace the ageing podded AN/ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System (TJS) currently employed by the Boeing EA-18G Growler operated by the US Navy and the RAAF. The NGJ-mid band (MB) is being developed by Raytheon and is the most advanced of the three versions, and is due to achieve an initial operational capability (IOC) in 2021. The NGJ-LB is scheduled to follow in 2023, and the NGJ-high band (HB) two to three years after that.

The US Navy awarded Northrop Grumman and L3 Technologies contracts valued at US$35.2 and US$35.7m respectively in October 2018 to conduct NGJ-LB development and demonstration work, and the new contracts valued at US$13.5m and US$13.7m respectively have been awarded to address schedule risks and to fund the development of more operationally-representative designs to be available for testing.

The contract awards say the companies were awarded a contract “modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to expand the analysis and design of the Next Generation Jammer Low-Band (NGJ LB) controller, receiver, exciter, and power generation subsystems.”

The RAAF is a cooperative development partner with the US Navy on the NGJ program.