ITT Exelis to help Navy with new EW system to protect ships from recently discovered threat
July 9, 2013WASHINGTON, 9 July 2013. Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the ITT Exelis Electronic Systems division in Van Nuys, Calif., are helping U.S. Navy researchers develop an add-on advanced EW system to protect surface warships from a newly discovered, yet undisclosed, immediate threat to Navy fleet operations.Officials of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington announced their intention Friday to award contracts cumulatively worth as much as $65 million to ITT Exelis to help Navyshipboard electronicsresearchers build and install an embarkable prototype EW system on several Navy surface ships.NRL scientists are developing the prototype embarkable EW systems in response to an urgent operational need statement (UONS) from the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, based on a newly discovered threat, Navy officials say.Although the threat is not described in detail, shipboard electronic warfare systems typically are designed to detect and jam enemy radar threats — particularly the electronics in radar-guided anti-ship missiles. Shipboard EW also can jam radar and other RF systems on manned aircraft and ships.
Navy officials are known to be concerned about advanced radar-guided anti-ship missiles such as the Russian-made SS-N-22 Sunburn and SS-NX-26 Oniks, which may be operational with military forces in Iran, Syria, and other countries in the Middle East for use against U.S. and allied naval forces in and around the Eastern Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and other vital waterways