CRANE, Ind. – U.S. Navy avionics experts have announced plans to hire Vadum Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., to continue a project to refine detection and classification techniques that identify new or waveform-agile radar threats and use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to respond automatically with an electronic warfare (EW) attack.
Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in Crane, Ind., said Tuesday they will ask Vadum engineers to continue work on the Reactive Electronic Attack Measures (REAM) project.
Vadum won a $9.4 million sole-source REAM contract in early 2019 to develop ways of keeping up with rapidly changing enemy radar frequencies, recognizing patterns in frequency shifts, and automatically devising methods to jam or spoof these frequencies-on-the fly.
On the REAM project, Vadum looked into detection and classification techniques that identify new or waveform-agile radar threats and automatically respond with an electronic attack.
Waveform-agile radar is an advanced technology that is able to change the time, frequency, space, polarization, and modulation of its signal from pulse to pulse to enhance its sensitivity, or to confuse potential adversaries about its design and use.
The contract announced Tuesday will ask Vadum to improve and expand the capabilities the company developed in the REAM project. Company engineers will develop, refine, integrate, and test software algorithms that provide EW protection against new and unknown threats, as well as the capability to characterize unknown radar threats, and scalable and modular capability to support additional platforms. The value of this upcoming contract has yet to be negotiated.
Today's airborne EW systems are proficient at identifying analog radar systems that operate on fixed frequencies. Once they identify a hostile radar system, EW aircraft can apply a preprogrammed countermeasure technique.
Yet the job of identifying modern digitally programmable radar variants using agile waveforms is becoming more difficult. Modern enemy radar systems are becoming digitally programmable with unknown behaviors and agile waveforms, so identifying and jamming them is becoming increasingly difficult.
Things will get worse in the future as radars develop the ability to sense their environment with artificial intelligence and machine learning, and adapt their transmission characteristics and pulse processing algorithms to defeat attempts to jam them.
New approaches like REAM seek to enable systems to generate effective countermeasures automatically against new, unknown, or ambiguous radar signals in near real-time. They are trying to develop new processing techniques and algorithms that characterize enemy radar systems, jam them electronically, and assess the effectiveness of the applied countermeasures.
Waveform-agile radar systems of the future will shift frequencies quickly in a pre-programmed electronic dance to foil electronic warfare attempts to defeat them.
Related: BAE Systems to develop advanced electronic warfare (EW) to counter enemy programmable radar
The Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in Bethpage, N.Y., won a $7.3 million contract in 2018 to develop machine-learning algorithms for the REAM program. The company is moving machine-learning algorithms to the EA-18G carrier-based electronic warfare jet to counter agile, adaptive, and unknown hostile radars or radar modes. REAM technology is expected to join active Navy fleet squadrons around 2025.
Vadum specializes in EW modeling and simulation. The company has expertise in RF and wireless circuit and systems design; electronic board design, layout, and fabrication; embedded hardware and software design; RF modeling and simulation; computational electromagnetics; antennas; wireless testing; cell phone forensics; servo and stepper motor control; algorithm and digital signal processing development; cryptography; data compression; and RF detection.
For more information contact Vadum online at https://vaduminc.com, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane at www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NSWC-Crane.
