Air Force orders electronic warfare (EW) jammers to foil efforts to defeat GPS-guided smart munitions
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – U.S. Air Force smart munitions experts needed add-on sensor kits to enable the GPU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guided bomb to attack jammers that degrade the performance of GPS-guided weapons. They found their solution from Scientific Applications & Research Associates Inc. (SARA) in Cypress, Calif.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, announced a $23.6 million contract to SARA this month for Home-on GPS Jam seekers intended for use by the Ukrainian military.
SARA experts will integrate the Home-on GPS Jam seekers on JDAM wing kits, which are being sold to Ukraine in that country's continuing war with Russia. This contract involves Foreign Military Sales to Ukraine, U.S. military leaders say.
The SARA Home on Jammer passive RF seekers have been demonstrated have been demonstrated on several different smart munitions to help them attack RF signals from radar and electronic warfare (EW) jammers.
The Home-on GPS Jam seekers will enable JDAM and other smart weapons to detect, pinpoint, and attack jammers intended to disrupt and degrade satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) signals that help guide bombs, missiles, and guided artillery shells to their targets.
This capability can help transform the JDAM smart bomb into a counter-EW system able to seek and destroy jammers that degrade weapons guidance, communications, and sensors. The SARA Home-on GPS Jam seekers also reportedly have been demonstrated on the Raytheon GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb.
On this contract SARA will do the work in Cypress, Calif., and St. Louis, and should be finished by October 2025. For more information contact Scientific Applications and Research Associates online at https://sara.com/rf-sensors-and-seekers/, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah at www.hill.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1583368/air-force-life-cycle-management-hill-afb-site.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
