home Weapons Electronic Warfare New Electronic Warfare Capability to Infantry Vehicles

New Electronic Warfare Capability to Infantry Vehicles

Aug 24, 2021

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Electronic warfare capability will be provided to US infantry units, a capability not always available due to various constraints. The U.S. Army recently awarded General Dynamics a contract to prototype an electronic warfare system on the new Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV). It is expected to provide electronic sensing and electronic attack.

The MDOWS Multi-Domain Operations Weapon System (dubbed by the Army as the Tactical Electronic Warfare System-Infantry Brigade Combat Team, or TEWS-IBCT), is the next evolution of a capability the company has provided the Army in the past.

The Stryker-mounted TEWS and its smaller Flyer-72 variant Tactical Electronic Warfare Light were deployed to soldiers in Europe as a quick-reaction capability and served as a prototype.

TEWS-I is being tested for smaller vehicles and infantry brigades to provide them with needed electronic warfare capabilities that are more mobile than those on larger vehicles. Previously, units didn’t possess the electronic attack capability due to power constraints. General Dynamics found a solution using existing power on Flyer-72s to generate enough power for the electronic attack portion. This was one of the reasons lighter units didn’t have an electronic attack capability.

Now, the key difference between TEWS and the Multi-Domain Operations Weapon System is the electronic attack portion using power from the vehicle. Under the new contract, General Dynamics will test those power measures with the new Infantry Squad Vehicle to outfit the system, according to c4isrnet.com.

General Dynamics is building six prototypes that the Army and its electronic warfare personnel can test and provide feedback on.

The system is platform-agnostic, meaning it could transition to Strykers, for example, if the Army wants it for other vehicles.

The ISV vehicle was designed for easy transport to operational environments with the infantry’s current rotary and fixed-wing transport platforms.