Mysterious New Electronic Warfare System Spotted On U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers
An intriguing upgrade has been installed on the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln that points to new defensive capabilities.
By Tyler Rogoway August 6, 2021
In this day and age, a warship's electronic warfare suite can be even more important than its kinetic capabilities—missiles and guns—when it comes to protecting it from enemy attacks. With America's foes working harder than ever to create weapons that can put the U.S. Navy's most prized vessels, its supercarriers, at risk, electronic warfare "soft kill" defenses are being rapidly enhanced. We have seen multiple new systems, which remain highly ambiguous in terms of their capabilities, appear on American destroyers and cruisers in recent years. Now a new system has emerged on two west coast-based supercarriers, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln, which both recently headed out into the Pacific.
The system in question is mounted at three locations around the perimeter of Nimitz class supercarriers to provide near-spherical coverage around the ship, just like the carrier's other defenses. This includes an installation on the fantail and two on opposite sides, amidships.
The large enclosures appear to be able to swivel, at least to a limited degree, and feature a circular, domed radome covering. The carriers already have variants of the AN/SLQ-32 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) electronic warfare system and some of them have also been equipped with the shadowy AN/SLQ-59 system, which may have been an interim application.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41857/mysterious-new-electronic-warfare-system-spotted-on-u-s-navy-aircraft-carriers
