Johns Hopkins APL Expertise Supports New Navy Jammer

An updated jammer was developed for the U.S. Navy with advice and expertise from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, which worked with government and industry to meet warfighter requirements.

The AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band (NGJ-MB) is an electronic warfare system that allows Navy Growlers to conduct airborne electronic attacks by disrupting, denying, and degrading enemy early-warning, air defense, and communications systems with increased jamming capability at longer ranges, according to Brian Geesaman, mission area executive for Precision Strike at APL, who led the technology maturation process during NGJ’s developmental period. Navy officials describe the NGJ-MB as a “quantum leap in capability over legacy systems,” with greatly increased power, target flexibility, and jamming techniques compared to those systems.

When the Navy issued the requirements for a replacement jammer, there was no industry business case for such a high-power, extremely broad band amplifier, meaning no immediate off-the-shelf solution was available. Leveraging nearly a half century of electronic warfare expertise, APL scientists and engineers, through tasking with the Office of Naval Research, partnered with industry to mature a solid-state amplifier and associated phased array antennas capable of meeting the Navy’s challenging requirements.

As enemy air defenses force Navy Growlers to operate at increasingly longer ranges, the NGJ combats these extended ranges with high-power amplifier and phased array technology.

“Advanced technologies like the NGJ give the U.S. a critical edge over its adversaries,” Geesaman said.