ITT Exelis to help Navy with new EW system to protect ships from recently discovered threat

Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the ITT Exelis Electronic Systems division in Van Nuys, Calif., are helping U.S. Navy researchers develop an add-on advanced EW system to protect surface warships from a newly discovered, yet undisclosed, immediate threat to Navy fleet operations.

Officials of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington announced their intention Friday to award contracts cumulatively worth as much as $65 million to ITT Exelis to help Navy shipboard electronics researchers build and install an embarkable prototype EW system on several Navy surface ships.

NRL scientists are developing the prototype embarkable EW systems in response to an urgent operational need statement (UONS) from the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, based on a newly discovered threat, Navy officials say.

Read more