JTE simulates anti-aircraft missiles and other radar threats to military aircraft

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah - U.S. Air Force flight training experts are asking the Northrop Grumman Corp. Amherst Systems segment in Buffalo, N.Y., to build realistic simulation and training equipment to help Air Force combat aircraft crews learn to evade anti-aircraft missiles, anti-aircraft artillery, and other radar threats.

Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, announced a $10.4 million order for two wideband Joint Threat Emitter (JTE) units. The JTE transmits RF signals that simulate single- and double-digit, surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery radar systems to provide training for combat aircrews by creating a modern, reactive battlespace war environment.

The JTE helps train military personnel to identify and counter enemy missile and artillery threats. It has a multi-threat, hi-fidelity simulator with realistic effective radiated power levels to help train combat aircrews to defeat or avoid integrated air defense systems (IADS) in a war-like training environment.

"When they go to a real-world situation, they won't see anything that we haven't thrown at them before," says Staff Sgt. Rick Woltkamp, 266th Range Squadron ground radar systems craftsman with the Idaho Air National Guard. "We simulate a ground attack, and the pilot will react and respond accordingly to the simulation."

A computer in the JTE collects data and evaluates the aircrew's response to simulated threat signals to evaluate their performance during their training sortie.

On this contract, Northrop Grumman will do the work in Buffalo, N.Y., and should be finished by June 2019.

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit the Northrop Grumman Amherst Systems online at www.northropgrumman.com, and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at www.wpafb.af.mil/aflcmc.