Raytheon has secured a $580 million follow-on production contract from the U.S. Navy for its Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) system.
The deal includes additional pod shipsets—some destined for the Royal Australian Air Force—along with spares and support equipment. Work will be carried out across Raytheon sites in Forest (Mississippi), McKinney (Texas), El Segundo (California), and Andover (Massachusetts) through 2028.
“Offensive Electronic Attack provides a tremendous combat capability, protecting strike packages, kinetic weapons and high-value airborne assets across a broad range of missions,” said Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon. “With this contract, we’ll ensure that our naval aviators in all theatres are better prepared to counter adversary threats and support the Joint Fight.”
The NGJ-MB is an airborne electronic attack system designed to replace the ageing ALQ-99 jamming pods currently used aboard the EA-18G Growler.
Each pod contains active electronically scanned arrays operating in the mid-band frequency range to disrupt enemy radar, communications, and data links.
Jointly developed with the Royal Australian Air Force, the system highlights a deepening defence partnership between the two nations and represents a significant step forward in countering increasingly complex electronic threats.
The NGJ-MB programme is one of several initiatives aimed at ensuring U.S. and allied aircraft remain survivable and dominant in increasingly contested electromagnetic environments.
Understand the USN Next Generation Jammer pods for the F-18 was split into three, high-band 6 GHz to 18 GHz, parts of C, X and Ku bands which don’t think was ever funded, mid-band 2 GHz to 6 GHz, S band and parts of C band won by Raytheon way back in 2013 and the low-band 100 MHz to 2GHz, UHF and L bands, won by L3Harris only last year, surprised the high band jammer not funded.