The next generation U.S. air superiority fighter jet that succeeds the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor will possess stealth in abundance and a new attribute -- electronic warfare (EW) systems directed by artificial intelligence (AI) that automatically negate digital radars.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force acknowledge the immense advantages offered by stealth technology are being whittled away by advances in radar technology. Chief among these threats to stealth are digitally programmable or adaptive radars such as those being developed by Russia and China as parts of their integrated air defense systems.

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Adaptive radars are the greatest threat to U.S. warplanes. These modern radar systems can detect and characterize sources of electronic noise such as radio frequency jamming or co-location antenna interference, and adapt the radar's performance to compensate.

DARPA and the Air Force now plan to leverage advances in signal processing and AI to develop intelligent algorithms that detect and counter adaptive radars and other emerging radar threats.

This fusion of stealth and electronic warfare capabilities will be present in the Air Force's successor to the F-22, which will be a jet called Penetrating Counter Air (PCA). PCA will make extensive use of electronic warfare and new electronic warfare systems that use AI to automatically jam a new radar signal.

To ensure mission success in future anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environments, EW systems will need to isolate unknown hostile radar signals in dense electromagnetic environments, and then rapidly generate effective electronic countermeasures.

In November 2016, DARPA awarded BAE Systems a $13.3 million contract modification to extend its work on the Adaptive Radar Countermeasures (ARC) project. The ARC program's goal is to enable airborne electronic warfare systems to defeat adaptive radars in real time.

Currently, only dedicated electronic attack aircraft such as the Boeing EA-18G Growler can identify and jam an unknown threat emitter. The F-22 Raptor relies on preprogrammed threat libraries that must be periodically updated to counter hostile radars.

The cognitive EW technologies developed for the ARC program employ advanced digital signal processing, intelligent algorithms and machine learning techniques.

TagsLockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, stealth, Electronic Warfare, digital radars, digitally programmable or adaptive radars, Penetrating Counter Air