Northrop Grumman Corporation has delivered the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 Engineering and Development Model (EDM) to the U.S. Navy for land-based testing. The official transfer was marked at an event with company and Navy program officials at Northrop Grumman’s systems integration facility in Baltimore, Maryland. Northrop Grumman successfully completed SEWIP Block 3 system integration and formal qualification testing as part of the engineering, manufacturing and development contract. This milestone indicates that the system is ready to transition to the U.S. Navy for formal land-based testing at the Naval Sea Systems Command Surface Combat Systems Center in Wallops Island, Virginia.
“This delivery represents the next step in a multi-year effort to take SEWIP from the laboratory to the hands of the warfighter,” said Mike Meaney, vice president, land and maritime sensors, Northrop Grumman. “Providing the comprehensive hardware-defined, software-enabled system to the Navy proves out the final design and signifies the end of the engineering, manufacturing and development phase.”
“The AN/SLQ-32(V)7 EDM delivery to the U.S. Navy for continued government land-based testing following formal qualification testing is a significant achievement for the SEWIP Block 3 program,” said Captain Jason Hall, the Navy’s Major Program Manager of Above Water Sensors and Lasers. “SEWIP Block 3 provides a critical electronic warfare capability to the Fleet to pace the evolving anti-ship missile threat.”
The Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 is an upgrade to the legacy AN/SLQ-32 system, and provides game-changing capability for non-kinetic electronic attack options to the U.S. fleet. The advantage of this electronic attack system is that it provides an unlimited, non-kinetic, soft-kill magazine to defeat inbound threats. The AN/SLQ-32(V)7 SEWIP Block 3 system protects surface ships from anti-ship missiles, providing early detection, signal analysis and threat warning. Northrop Grumman was awarded the follow-on production contract with the U.S. Navy in September 2020. The program is managed by the U.S. Navy Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS).
Arming the Fleet with new electronic warfare (EW) systems and integrated ship defense remains a top priority for the Navy as threats continue to mature and evolve. Northrop Grumman is pushing the technological boundaries to bring a new set of advanced capabilities to the warfighter quickly and efficiently to meet urgent operational needs. SEWIP Block 3, being developed by Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS), is the third in a series of incremental upgrades that adds an electronic attack (EA) capability to the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare (EW) system to defend ships against anti-ship missiles. Northrop Grumman was awarded the follow on production contract for AN/SLQ-32(V)7 SEWIP Block 3 systems by the U.S. Navy.
