Leonardo to upgrade Nato's EW training equipment

Leonardo has signed a contract worth approximately €180 million to provide new electronic warfare training equipment for the NATO Joint Electronic Warfare Core Staff (JEWCS). Leonardo was selected in an international competition and will incorporate technology from partners Cobham and Elettronica. The contract was placed by the U.K. Ministry of Defence as the host nation for NATO JEWCS, which is based at the Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) in Yeovilton. Equipment will be delivered in tranches over the next four years from Leonardo’s Electronic Warfare (EW) centre of excellence in Luton, U.K.

NATO JEWCS is the Alliance agency responsible for thehigh-tech world of electronic warfare. When NATO forces go on operations, theycan expect the enemy to try and disrupt their radars, GPS and communications.Therefore, to train realistically, it is important that NATO Forces experiencethese effects and practice how to counter them. Part of NATO JEWCS’s remit isto improve armed forces training by simulating the effects of an enemy’s latestelectronic warfare equipment during exercises, creating a ‘hostile environment’in which to train. To deliver the service, NATO JEWCS deploys high-tech EWequipment at training sites around Europe, allowing armed forces to practicetheir skills in areas such as electronic surveillance and electroniccountermeasures while facing true-to-life attempts to disrupt their activity.

In delivering this support, it is important that the EWeffects being simulated are state-of-the-art, keeping pace with opposingforces’ latest tech developments. Leonardo will be providing representativeequipment across three domains: air, land and maritime. In the air, highlycapable and flexible pod-based EW systems will be supplied for deployment onaircraft, alongside a NATO Anti-Ship Missile Defence Evaluation Facility(NASMDEF). NASMDEF comprises a set of pods that can be installed on aircraft tosimulate anti-ship missiles.

They allow forces to train in the use of ‘soft-killcountermeasures’, which are used to protect ships from incoming threats. Cobhamwill be Leonardo’s principle sub-contractor for these elements. For land andmaritime applications, fully ruggedised shelters and vehicles will be provided,equipped with modular and flexible EW simulators, stimulators and jammingequipment. Elettronica will act as Leonardo’s principal sub-contractor forthese elements.

Leonardo’s electronic warfare expertise includes designingand manufacturing protective and ISR (Intelligence Surveillance andRecconaisance) equipment for U.K. and allied aircraft such as the EurofighterTyphoon and AW159 helicopters, delivering specialist EW training at its Academyin Lincoln and investing in the development of the latest generation ofcountermeasures such as the anti-IED ‘Guardian’ system for troops on the groundand the ‘BriteCloud’ decoy for fighter jet pilots.