General Dynamics receives $19.5 million contract to provide 15 SEWIP shipboard EW systems
WASHINGTON, 20 Aug. 2014. U.S. Navy officials are asking engineers at the General Dynamics Corp. Advanced Information Systems segment in Fairfax, Va., to upgrade electronic warfare (EW) systems for Navy surface warships under terms of a maximum $19.5 million contract announced Monday.
The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington is asking General Dynamics to provide 15 high-gain, high-sensitivity systems in support of the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 1B3 low-rate initial production requirements.
SEWIP is an evolutionary acquisition program to upgrade the existing AN/SLQ-32(V) shipboard electronics EW system through a modular, open-system approach, Navy officials say. SEWIP provides enhanced shipboard EW for early detection, analysis, threat warning, and protection from anti-ship missiles.
SEWIP Block 1 focuses on obsolescence mitigation and special signal intercept. This equipment will provide SEWIP with the ability to detect and identify additional threat emitters and provide warning to the combat system to enhance SEWIP capabilities.
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The SEWIP program is upgrading the Navy's existing AN/SLQ-32(V) electronic warfare system by improving the receiver and antenna group to meet current and anticipated threats, as well as to yield improved system integration, Navy officials say.
Since the SEWIP program started in 2002, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (AIS) in Fairfax, Va., acted as prime contractor for SEWIP blocks 1A, 1B1, 1B2, and 1B3. Lockheed Martin Radar Systems won a Navy award for block 2 in late 2009.
In early 2012, Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin formed a team to capture a Navy award for the system's newest generation, SEWIP Block 3. The different SEWIP variants will provide more effective capability for countering hostile electronic signals actively and passively.
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The Lockheed Martin-Raytheon team demonstrated the Block 3 SEWIP in 2012 during the RIMPAC naval exercise in the Pacific. The Lockheed Martin Corp. Radar Systems segment in Liverpool, N.Y., won a contract last year to build advanced-development prototypes of the SEWIP Block 2 system.
Developed by Raytheon in the 1970s, the original AN/SLQ-32 systems employed passive radar technology for early warning, identification and tracking of enemy threats. Subsequent upgrades provided an additional active capability for simultaneous jamming of several different threats.
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On the contract awarded this week, General Dynamics will do the work in Pittsfield, Mass.; Fairfax, Va.; Thousand Oaks, Calif.; and San Diego, and should be finished by September 2016.
For more information contact General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems online at www.gd-ais.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
