Northrop Grumman announced that a company testbed aircraft flew with the company’s F-16 Next-Generation Electronic Warfare and AN/APG-83 SABR systems in a dense electromagnetic spectrum environment at the Northern Lightning joint training exercise August.

“When an EW system and a radar can work together fully, as demonstrated with NGEW and SABR, pilots can take advantage of capability without compromise,” said James Conroy, navigation, targeting, and survivability vice president Northrop Grumman. “With the radio frequency (RF) spectrum becoming increasingly contested, this critical set of capabilities will support the F-16 for many years to come.”

Flying on the company’s testbed aircraft, NGEW and SABR demonstrated full pulse-to-pulse, multi-function interoperability in a contested operational environment. With SABR successfully engaging multiple air and ground targets, NGEW detected and identified a range of advanced threats, employing advanced jamming techniques capable of defeating those threats when required.

During the exercise, the two systems were exposed to a high-density radio frequency environment created by the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Centre's Joint Threat Emitters. Northern Lightning participants were able to fly missions under conditions resembling near-peer electromagnetic spectrum environments thanks to these threat emitters.