The Navy awarded a $587.4 million contract to L3Harris Technologies in August to develop the Next Generation Jammer Low Band system for select aircraft, increasing their lethality, as Rear Adm. John Lemmon stated. This system will augment and replace the existing ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System on the EA-18G Growler, with early operational capability expected in 2029.
In addition, the Navy awarded a $16 million bid to Fuse Integration to equip the Fuse CORE 4.0 virtualized network system on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, a Northrop Grumman-built battle management command and control platform. This upgrade will improve reliability and maintainability, replacing bulky and obsolete routers, and adding cybersecurity capabilities.
Last year, the United States approved a $1.4 billion sale of the E-2D Hawkeye to Japan, which was later modified to $1.5 billion this year. Japan has requested nine aircraft under the contract. Todd South, a Marine veteran of the Iraq War, has been writing about crime, courts, government, and the military since 2004.