As real-world combat conditions grow in complexity, pilots must be prepared. The U.S. Navy has shown its confidence in Mercury Systems and its digital RF memory (DRFM) subsystems by way of a $243.8-million, five-year contract for rapidly reprogrammable electronic attack (EA) training subsystems for the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division. With their DRFM capabilities, the reactive jamming subsystems (see figure) can be quickly reprogrammed for different mission scenarios and aircraft to better simulate real-world combat environments. Mercury has established a solid history with the U.S. Navy’s Airborne Threat Simulation Organization (ATSO) since 1987, having delivered more than 600 radar jamming systems since that time. The latest contract includes engineering services to continually update the subsystems library of threat models for rapid threat identification.
Roya Montakhab, General Manager of Mercury’s Platform Systems business unit, noted: “The electronic warfare capabilities of near-peer adversaries are more sophisticated than ever before, and our combat pilots must train using technology that emulates the most advanced jamming threats.” She added: “We look forward to working with the Navy’s Airborne Threat Simulation Office to provide our pilots with a mission-critical advantage on the battlefield.”