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As an old EW guy I gotta tell you – I think the Air Force is hitting a home run here.<\/p>\n
They have announced putting an ALQ-167 jammer into an MQ-9A Reaper drone.<\/p>\n
\n\n\nThe successful trials at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, focused on providing electronic attack from the Reaper, a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems product typically used to collect intelligence or conduct reconnaissance. The pod is derived from technology developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which in 2013 described the project as using commercial electronics, custom hardware and novel machine-learning for flexibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to expand the mission sets the MQ-9 can accomplish,\u201d MAJ Arron Aguilar, the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron assistant director of operations, said in a statement May 13. \u201cThe proliferation and persistence of MQ-9s in theater allows us to fill traditional platform capability gaps that may be present.\u201d<\/p>\n
Electronic warfare, or EW, is an invisible fight for control of the electromagnetic spectrum, used to communicate with friendly forces, to identify and suppress opponents, and to guide weapons. Dominance of the spectrum will be critical in a fight with China or Russia, the two most significant national security threats, according to U.S. defense officials.<\/p>\n
“Fifteen hours of persistent noise integrated with a large force package will affect an adversary,\u00a0 require them to take some form of scalable action to honor it, and gets at the heart of strategic deterrence,\u201d Chmielewski said. (Lt. Col. Michael Chmielewski, the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron commander – Ed.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n