Raytheon joins Army program to create command post electronic warfare planning tool

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., 4 Dec. 2013.Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the Raytheon Co. are joining those at Sotera Defense Solutions Inc. in Herndon, Va., on a U.S. Army project to develop planning software to help managing jamming of enemy communications, remotely controlled explosives, radar systems, and other RF assets while safeguarding U.S. and allied RF systems.

Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., awarded a $97.9 million contract to the Raytheon Co. Network Centric Systems segment in Fort Wayne, Ind., to take part in designing the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool (EWPMT). Sotera won its EWPMT contract last July.

The EWPMT, which is part of the Army's Integrated Electronic Warfare System (IEWS), will be a software tool to help Army electronic warfare officers plan, coordinate, manage, and de-conflict unit EW activities.

The tool will help Army officers coordinate distributed EW systems tied together on tactical networks. The tool will help aligned align EW systems with artillery and mortar installations, as well as help synchronize air and ground electromagnetic spectrum operations.

EWPMT capabilities include producing EW orders and estimates, planning and employing EW assets, conducting EW targeting with weapons and jammers, and conducting EW battle damage assessment.

EWPMT will provide risk assessment recommend courses of action for EW missions with software applications and tools that act as a set of services to be run within the command post computing environment, as well as with one or more presentation-layer widgets to be run on a thin-client laptop computer.

The IEWS, of which the EWPMT is a part, will provide Army commanders from corps to company focusing on the brigade combat team (BCT) their own EW capability that improves a land force's ability to seize, retain, and exploit an advantage in RF communications, signals intelligence, radar sensing, and other RF capabilities.

The EWPMT also has other capabilities. The system will provide software that integrates data for friendly, enemy, and non-aligned RF emitters and help plan and manage EW capabilities across the range of military operations.

Army leaders expect this capability to reduce the risk of jamming friendly communications and radar systems by identifying potential frequency conflicts between U.S. and allied systems.

The tool also will provide graphic displays of friendly emitter interference, disruption, and degradation, and enable EW personnel to determine proper EW techniques; transfer EW resources to other groups to provide backup support; conduct post-mission analysis; reconfigure EW assets; and program EW assets to help target enemy emitters.

On this contract Raytheon will do the work in Fort Wayne, Ind., and at other locations, and should be finished by late 2018. For more information contact Raytheon online at www.raytheon.com, Sotera Defense Solutions at www.soteradefense.com, or the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground at www.acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-apg.