US Navy Strengthens Battlespace Situational Awareness
The U.S. Office of Naval Research has awarded BAE Systems an $11 million contract to develop next-generation electronic warfare (EW) technology that will quickly detect, locate, and identify emitters of radio frequency signals.
Known as the Full-Spectrum Staring Receiver (FSSR), this technology will enable near-instantaneous battlespace situational awareness, emitter identification and tracking, threat warning and countermeasure and weapon cueing. Conventional situational awareness systems are not able to deliver the high level of coverage and responsiveness that FSSR will provide.
“The Full-Spectrum Staring Receiver program integrates a complementary array of innovative technologies into a comprehensive demonstration capability that closes a widening gap for a range of Navy ships and aircraft,” said Steve Hedges, FSSR principal investigator at BAE Systems. “By subjecting the FSSR demonstrator to realistic, complex electromagnetic environments, we can demonstrate how these discrete innovations combine to enable an effective EW system capability.”
With FSSR, U.S. Navy ships will be constantly aware of threat emitters over a very broad span of the electromagnetic spectrum. This effort is part the ONR’s Electronic Warfare Discovery and Invention Program, which seeks to develop and demonstrate a broad range of next-generation electronic warfare systems that exploit, deceive, or deny enemy use of the electromagnetic spectrum while ensuring its unfettered use by friendly forces. As the prime contractor on FSSR, BAE Systems brings its electronic warfare system domain expertise, threat characterization and identification processing and system design and integration knowledge.
“I am particularly excited by this research effort because it integrates a number of electronic warfare technologies that have been advanced by ONR-funded efforts dating back to 2008,” said Dr. Peter Craig, electronic warfare program officer for ONR. “Even more gratifying is that it brings together the talents of researchers from academia, industry and the government in a coordinated effort that will benefit not only the Navy but the entire Department of Defense community.”
Other members of BAE Systems FSSR team include the S2 Corporation, University of Colorado Boulder, Montana State University, Purdue University, HRL Laboratories and the Naval Research Laboratory.