The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon a $1 billion contract to build 15 engineering development models of the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), its future electronic warfare pod. The contract calls for completing work in December 2020, in advance of the Navy beginning initial operations with the pod on the Boeing EA-18G Growler.

Under the contract, announced by the Department of Defense (DOD) on April 13, Raytheon's facility in El Segundo, Calif., will manufacture both the engineering development models and 14 aero-mechanical test pods to verify aircraft flying qualities with the underwing pod and “pod safe separation.” The DOD on April 7 announced a $19.9 million contract award to Boeing to begin preliminary integration work on the EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft.

The NGJ will replace the long-serving and continuously updated ALQ-99 tactical jamming pod. The Navy plans to field the new pod in three increments representing different radio frequency ranges, beginning with Increment 1 (mid-band) in 2021, followed by Increments 2 (low-band) and 3 (high-band). The estimated program cost is $7.4 billion, including $3.3 billion for research and development and $4 billion to procure 128 systems.

The Naval Air Systems Command (Navair), which serves as the contract authority, announced on April 5 that Increment 1 was approved by the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics to begin the next phase of development. Navair expects to conduct a critical design review of the system in 2017 to finalize the design and provide for fabrication and assembly of test models. The first test of a fully functional jamming pod is planned in March 2019.

Navair selected Raytheon to develop the NGJ in July 2013 over Northrop Grumman, ITT Exelis and BAE Systems, awarding the company a $279 million contract for the technology development phase. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld a following protest by BAE Systems, referring the procurement back to the Navy for re-evaluation. The service reconfirmed Raytheon as the contractor in January 2014.

Raytheon and the Navy completed a preliminary design review of the NGJ in September. In a report last month, the GAO said the parties assessed the jammer’s seven critical technologies, which include two separate arrays, each with different transmit/receive modules, and a power generation system. “The program considers achieving the necessary power within weight constraints to be the greatest risk,” the GAO stated. “Additional risks include integration of the NGJ with the EA-18G and the potential for electromagnetic radiation to affect the reliability of missiles employed on the EA-18G.”