Northrop Grumman’s EGI-M technology prepares the Raptor for high-end electronic warfare, ensuring elite pilots maintain precision navigation and targeting capabilities even when enemy jamming severs satellite links.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior
Many weapons developers have for years operated with the understanding that one of the first moves a great power enemy is likely to attempt in war is an effort to jam or disable GPS. As part of this equation, the Pentagon has been immersed in efforts to identify alternative methods of establishing what’s called Positioning Navigation and Timing technologies. These efforts have been based upon the premise that the US military is potentially over-reliant upon GPS. Should GPS get destroyed in a war, for instance, the US military might lose navigation, targeting, communications systems and an ability to operate unmanned systems programmed to follow GPS waypoints.
Since the days of the Gulf War debut of a host of new precision weaponry and communications technology, the US military has increasingly developed GPS-dependent drones, satellites, force tracking systems and a wide range of weapons. While such things, such as Air Force Joint Direct Attack Munitions for the Air Force, or the Army’s GPS-enabled Blue Force Tracking succeeded in ushering in a new generation of advanced combat operations – in more recent years potential adversaries have become adept at closing what was a large technological gap with the US and targeting the GPS signals themselves. This threat circumstance has propelled industry and military efforts to prioritize and fast-track technologies able to perform targeting, force tracking and communications functions without needing GPS.
Advanced jamming techniques, electronic warfare and sophisticated cyberattacks have radically impacted combat equation – making GPS signals vulnerable to enemy disruption. Accordingly, there is a broad consensus among military developers and industry innovators that far too many necessary combattechnologies are reliant upon GPS systems. Weapons targeting, ship navigation and even small handheld soldier force-tracking systems all rely upon GPS signals to operate.
Harden & Supplement GPS
For years now, the Pentagon has pursued a dual-pronged trajectory intended to “harden” GPS itself and also develop innovative non-GPS-reliant PNT technologies for navigation, targeting and networking. One such promising PNT technology for airborne navigation developed by Northrop Grumman called EGI-M will soon be flying on U.S, Air Force F-22s.
“This advanced, resilient PNT receiver allows our U.S. military assets the ability to go where we want to, with the capability we need, at the time of our choosing,” Lt. Col. Chris Grover, U.S. Air Force, said in a statement released by Northrop Grumman.
EGI-M is an emerging, shoe-box size navigation capability developed to strengthen PNT; accurate PNT details can of course help pilots precisely determine where they are in relation to surrounding threats and terrain and determine exactly how much they are moving and accelerating through an elaborate, high-tech measurement process. Northrop information on the system describes EGI-M in terms of a “blending” system combining the hardening off GPS itself with inertial navigation systems able to generate “reliable” navigation data. Northrop developers have explained that a navigation system based on inertial measurements from gyroscopes and accelerometers can either start with, supplement and solidify a GPS signal or alternatively function independently as needed
“The military-code PNT system, known as EGI-M, marks a significant advancement in airborne navigation technology by ensuring the reliability of navigation data in conflict zones. Further advancements include Blended Navigation Assurance, a capability that ensures GPS data is correct and safe, even when it’s threatened,” a Northrop essay on the technology states.
F-22 & E-2D Hawkeye
Planned to first integrate into F-22 jets and E-2D Hawkeye surveillance planes, the box collects data over time, which is continually processed by software able to calculate exactly how much the aircraft has accelerated and moved, establishing a specific trajectory, Northrop data explains.
The application of EGI-M, therefore, it seems apparent, introduces several new tactical possibilities, such as a scenario wherein a Navy Hawkeye E-2D surveillance asset might need to operate with precision in an area where GPS networks are either highly-threatened or rendered ineffective. Furthermore, the tactical relevance clearly extends beyond a single, isolated platform as modern operational reality of course hinges upon massive amounts of networking and data sharing. A Hawkeye’s relevance pertains not only to what it can detect but how it can use radio, GPS, datalinks and other networking technologies to share information of pressing operational significance. Perhaps a Hawkeye, having solidified its PNT in a hostile area, can radio navigational and targeting positions to nearby fighter jets, Navy ships, or even space assets.
Years ago during an earlier phase in the technologies development, Northrop developers explained that the technical specifics of how EGI-M achieves its PNT data are indeed quite complex, as they pertain to advanced scientific principles, software and computer technology able to calculate essential “measurements” of movement, acceleration and position changes. Northrop developers said “gyroscopes and accelerometers” can track movements of an object according to certain established laws of physics.
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 1945. Osborn is also President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University