Harris eyes spectrum warfare technologies blending electronic warfare (EW) and optical warfare
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – Researchers at Harris Corp. are focusing on advanced technologies for electronic warfare (EW), optical warfare, and cyber warfare -- better-known as spectrum warfare -- to find ways of integrating these technologies rapidly into U.S. military weapon systems.
Officials of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, have announced a $24.9 million contract to the Harris Corp. Electronic Systems segment (formerly ITT Exelis) in Clifton, N.J., for the Integrated Demonstrations and Applications Laboratory (IDAL) research program.
This research initiative seeks to investigate leading-edge spectrum warfare enabling technologies and applications using a multispectral synthetic battlespace simulation to integrate sensor and EW technologies, identify and resolve technology issues and risks, demonstrate technology applications and benefits, and perform rapid technology insertions and transitions.
Spectrum warfare seeks to blend EW technologies such as electronic jammers, electronic spoofing, radar, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) together with electro-optical technologies like infrared sensors, multispectral and hyperspectral sensors, visible-light sensors, and laser technologies.
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For the IDAL research program, Harris researchers will demonstrate and verify new spectrum warfare technologies, and develop spectrum warfare simulations to evaluate whether new technologies could be integrated into military weapons in the near term.
The Harris IDAL work also will develop and integrate protocols and instrumentation for testing EW technologies.
On this contract Harris will do the work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and should be finished by February 2021. For more information contact Harris Electronic Systems online at www.harris.com/es, or the Air Force Research Laboratory at www.wpafb.af.mil/afrl.
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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.
