Navy Confirms That New Jammer Will Be Cyber-Invasion Device

The EA-18G Growler and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will both carry an airborne network invasion weapon, says U.S. Navy’s top intelligence official.

A few years ago, the U.S. Air Force first demonstrated the ability to create a focused datastream with its EC-130 Compass Call aircraft that could be filled with invasive algorithms and fired into the antenna of an integrated air defense system and its wirelessly-connected missile launching vehicles. The capability was exercised in a progressive series of “Suter programs”. The effects on the enemy network were monitored by an RC-135 Rivet Joint. Now the Navy will install the capability on fighter-size tactical aircraft.

“I think [Suter] is a good description of  NGJ [capability],” says Vice Adm. David J. Dorsett, deputy Chif of Naval Operations for information dominance and director of naval intelligence (N2/N6).

“Yes, correct,” he says, the Navy is planning to put the capability on tactical aircraft. “Next Generation Jammer is a focus for that type of capability.”

NGJ is part of a Navy effort from 2010 to 2020 to refocus research and development on non-kinetic capabilities like information operations, network invasion and electronic attack. “We have been out of balance” because of the necessary focus on kinetic (explosive and penetrating) weapons needed to fight limited wars in the 2000-2010 period, Dorsett says.

Tags: ar99, F-35, Growler, NGJ, Navy