Australia’s fleet of EA-18G Growler electronic attack jets is getting a major upgrade. Under a $580.6 million contract awarded in May 2025, Raytheon has begun producing Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band pods for both the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force, marking the first time the advanced electronic warfare system has been slated for delivery to an allied nation.
The deal, announced by the U.S. Department of Defense, covers low-rate initial production Lot V of the NGJ-MB, the fifth batch of pods built as the program moves toward full-rate manufacturing. By naming the RAAF alongside the Navy in a single production contract, the Pentagon signaled that the system has matured enough to support allied procurement and that Washington and Canberra have cleared the technology-transfer hurdles for one of the military’s most sensitive electronic warfare platforms.
What the NGJ-MB replaces and why it matters
The NGJ-MB is designed to retire the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system, a Cold War-era pod that first flew on the EA-6B Prowler in 1971 and later migrated to the Growler. After more than five decades of service, the ALQ-99’s analog architecture struggles against modern integrated air defense networks that operate across wider frequency bands and employ advanced signal processing to resist jamming.
Raytheon’s replacement pod targets the mid-band frequencies most commonly used by contemporary radars and military communications. It uses active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology to generate more precise, higher-power jamming beams that can engage multiple threats simultaneously. The U.S. Navy declared the NGJ-MB had reached initial operational capability in September 2022, confirming it met minimum performance and reliability thresholds for frontline use. That milestone cleared the path for broader production orders, including the Lot V contract covering Australian hardware.
For Australia, the upgrade is especially consequential. The RAAF operates 12 EA-18G Growlers out of No. 6 Squadron at RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland, making it the only country besides the United States to fly the aircraft. Those jets give Australia a rare offensive electronic attack capability in the Indo-Pacific, but their effectiveness depends on the quality of the jamming pods they carry. Swapping ALQ-99s for NGJ-MB pods would substantially sharpen that edge.
Contract details and what they reveal
The Lot V contract is structured as a fixed-price incentive award, meaning Raytheon absorbs financial risk if production costs exceed agreed targets but can earn higher margins by staying under budget. This contract type is standard for programs that have cleared development and early testing but have not yet scaled to full-rate production.
The $580.6 million figure covers ship sets for both the Navy and the RAAF, but the DoD announcement does not break out how many pods go to each customer or what Australia’s share of the cost is. Earlier production lots, tracked through notices on the SAM.gov federal procurement portal, show the program’s steady progression from system integration and qualification work to the current manufacturing phase. Each successive LRIP lot has typically increased in quantity as Raytheon resolved production challenges and the Navy gained confidence in the hardware.
The fact that Australia entered the production line at Lot V rather than waiting for full-rate production, when unit costs are generally lower, suggests Canberra prioritized speed of delivery over cost optimization. That urgency aligns with Australia’s 2024 National Defence Strategy, which identified electronic warfare and information dominance as top investment priorities amid growing strategic competition in the region.
What remains unclear
Several important details are not yet public. The DoD contract announcement authorizes production and delivery but does not specify a delivery schedule. A signed contract is not the same as a completed handoff: defense production timelines frequently shift, and Lot V pods could arrive at Australian facilities months after the contract was executed. As of early May 2026, neither RTX nor the Australian Department of Defence has issued a public statement confirming that pods have physically reached RAAF Base Amberley or entered operational testing with No. 6 Squadron.
It is also unknown whether the RAAF’s pods are identical to the U.S. Navy version. Allied nations sometimes receive modified export variants of American defense systems, with certain classified capabilities adjusted or removed. The contract treats both customers under a single line item, which could indicate identical hardware, but no public documentation confirms this either way.
Equally unaddressed is how the NGJ-MB fits into joint operational planning. Australia and the United States routinely conduct combined exercises such as Talisman Sabre that test interoperability between their forces. Whether upcoming exercises will include scenarios designed to validate the NGJ-MB in a combined electronic attack environment has not been disclosed.
Electronic warfare cooperation and the Indo-Pacific outlook
Australia’s inclusion in the NGJ-MB program sits within a broader pattern of deepening U.S.-Australian defense technology cooperation, most visibly through the AUKUS partnership announced in 2021. While AUKUS is best known for its nuclear-powered submarine pillar, its second pillar focuses on sharing advanced capabilities in areas including electronic warfare, cyber, artificial intelligence, and undersea systems.
The Indo-Pacific’s electromagnetic environment is growing more contested. China has invested heavily in integrated air defense systems, electronic warfare units, and counter-jamming technology. A Growler fleet equipped with NGJ-MB pods would give Australia a tool specifically built to degrade those defenses, whether in support of strike operations, maritime patrols, or allied coalition missions.
Raytheon is also developing a low-band increment of the Next Generation Jammer, known as NGJ-LB, which would target a different portion of the frequency spectrum and further expand the Growler’s electronic attack repertoire. That program remains in earlier stages of development, and Australia has not publicly committed to acquiring it.
For now, the confirmed takeaway is straightforward: Australia is locked into the NGJ-MB production line, with funding secured and hardware under contract. The pods represent a generational leap over the ALQ-99 and would make the RAAF’s Growler squadron one of the most capable airborne electronic attack units outside the United States. The remaining questions, how many pods, when exactly they arrive, and whether they carry the full U.S. Navy configuration, will likely be answered only when Canberra or the Pentagon chooses to disclose them.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
