The US Navy has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) under which the two will be working together to develop new jammer technology.
The two parties, both operating EA-18G Growlers, agreed to jointly mature the AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer Mid-band (NGJ-MB) capability.
The MoU was signed at US Pacific Fleet Headquarters, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Oct. 18, with Program Executive Officer for Tactical Aircraft Programs US Navy Rear Adm. Mike Moran, PMA-234 Program Manager US Navy Capt. Michael Orr, and RAAF Air Vice Marshal Cath Roberts in attendance.
“This is a very important milestone for both nations,” said Orr. “PMA-234 is officially a joint program office partnering with one of our allies. It took four years of communication and collaboration to get to this point, and I commend both nations for their dedication to this partnership.”
The MOU provides the framework for communication, coordination and cooperation between the U.S. Navy and the RAAF during the NGJ-MB engineering & manufacturing development (EMD) phase.
The AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) Increment (Inc) 1 Mid-band program passed the critical design review in late April and is now in the engineering and manufacturing development phase.
The jammer is being developed to address the emerging, advanced threats and increased threat density using the latest Active Electronically Scanned Array, also known as AESA, digital and software-based technologies.