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NSWC Crane Delivers Electro-Magnetic Environment Generation System

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080814-13
Release Date: 8/14/2008 2:32:00 PM

By Mary Camacho, Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center Public Affairs

CRANE, Ind. (NNS) -- Engineers at Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane) completed delivery of an electromagnetic environment (EME) generation system to the Army's Yuma Proving Ground.

The Crane EME system was funded by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) to provide enhanced test capability at national test ranges by recreating high fidelity, realistic electromagnetic environments suitable for testing electronic warfare systems. The system is being employed at the Yuma test range.

The EME system consists of multiple arbitrary waveform generators that replay a complex set of waveforms over a very broad frequency space. The signals are amplified and transmitted over nine antennas that deliver the correct environment on a given test range. The signals from the EME system are designed to represent a specific test or operational scenario that simulates the real electromagnetic environment for a given region of the world.

William Lang, Airborne Electronic Attack Systems division, says NSWC Crane became involved as the primary government hardware integrator alongside a private firm to provide technical oversight to the EME system design, evaluation and testing.

"NSWC Crane's EME system augments the native EME at the test site to provide an environment that we can realistically find in the intended areas of operation for these systems," said Lang.

"Obviously program managers would like to find and correct issues during testing and not after fielding. We provide the EME generation system, integration into a trailer, the cooling and the antenna mast components of the system."

NSWC Crane scientists will build a system, check to make sure that it is operable, ship the entire unit to the testing site, set it up, and ensure its functionality.

The additional EME capability will deliver thousands of potential signals spanning several gigahertz of frequency space with a wide-range of controllable attributes that significantly complicate the task of electronic warfare (EW) systems.

The EME generation system presents realistic radio frequency (RF) scenarios and signals which form the battlespace in which modern EW systems operate such as seen in urban areas. EW systems must quickly sort through a very dense and busy environment and determine threat signals which require action to be taken against them. The ability to control signal density in the full range of expected operational environments provides EW program managers a robust capability to develop material solutions.

These RF noise scenarios help scientists thoroughly analyze EW systems by testing the amount of stress from the noise. EME can vary regionally due to federal regulations, commercial standards in use, population density, RF transmission conditions or time of day. China Lake, Calif. is another site expected to receive an EME system by the end of this year.

The future of this product involves installing portions of EME generation systems in other labs and test sites that participate in the design and development of EW systems. The EME generation system is part of a larger effort that seeks to understand the electronic warfare battlespace through data collection, analysis and interpretation so that the test scenarios used reflect the most current and actual depictions of real world operational environments.

For more news from Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, visit www.navy.mil/local/crane/.