White Paper

A Better Alternative for Advanced Electronic Warfare Solutions

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3 Mercury has been deeply involved, as have others, in the EW space for a long time. We believe we may be the first to truly attempt to employ modular open systems architectures to EW and then develop a thought- ful "roadmap" on how to build solutions that can get the job done, affordably. We understand "Open" "Modular Open Systems Architecture: …a technical architecture that adopts open standards supporting a modular… highly cohesive system structure…that yield modular, interoperable systems…" The DoD has been asking a reluctant defense industrial base for open systems architecture based solutions for over 20 years. Why the reluctance? Mostly because the market has rewarded closed systems that allow a commercial provider to recover the risk they incurred when developing a technology on behalf of a customer, the mission owner. So the reluctance is completely understandable. What has changed however is we now live in a world where open, modular, standardized architectures are more of a necessity than a luxury. DoD procurement reform (Better Buying Power 3.0), more firm fixed price contracts, and the need for rapid development and deploy- ment for both new programs and for platform modernizations have all created an environment where "open" and "standardized" require more than lip service. Further, even programs that remain "cost plus" are be- ing driven by slimmed down budgets that require the defense industrial base and the commercial companies that make up that base, to be very innovative in how technologies get developed and deployed. Mercury Systems pioneered open systems architectures in the embed- ded computing world by driving development and industry adoption of OpenVPX. With OpenVPX a truly standardized and modular open sys- tems architecture was introduced, ratified by ANSI and has now been adopted within the defense electronics industry. Today it is allowing for more rapid deployment of new platforms and modernizations of older platforms in ways that before hadn't been thought possible. But what about the fragmented, "cottage industry" world of RF and microwave technologies that make up the bedrock of many EW based solutions? Mercury has stepped up there as well. In October of 2014 we introduced the first open systems architecture for RF and Microwave solutions. We call it OpenRFM ™ . OpenRFM is a modular, open architecture that combines hardware, firmware and software that can be applied to EW and SIGINT challenges. It's benefits are that it allows for flexible and interoperable solutions in this space, both characteristics that can drive enhanced affordability. We have product instances of OpenRFM already close to launch at the writing of this paper. Customer interest slogan. It has become a way of life at Mercury. Where every part of the company works together, over-communicates, and holds ourselves and one another accountable for the optimal result for our customers. One Mercury didn't happen overnight. But we believe it is a differentiator that separates us from organizations that operate as a loose federa- tion of fiefdoms, not as one seamless organization intent on driving the desired result. Electronic Warfare Subsystems and Solutions In the world of Electronic Warfare we need to stay one step ahead of our near peer and peer threats. The attack-counterattack game has given rise to the need to develop advanced systems that mirror enemy techniques in order to test our systems and those of our allies. These systems allow for the testing and verification of weapon and defense systems against an enemies' EW systems. Armed with the test and verification knowledge, capabilities can then be developed to take countermeasures against any threat that arises. Three key elements within the EW spectrum include; Denial Jamming, Deceptive Jamming and Threat Analysis. Denial Jamming consists of detecting and identifying a signal from an enemy system and then blasting large amounts of false information or "noise" at that frequency, jamming the enemy system and prevent- ing that frequency from being used. Deceptive Jamming uses DRFM based jammers which record the transmitted signal of an enemy sys- tem and produce a false return signal to confuse the enemy. The false signal tricks the enemy system into thinking the false return is the real target. The enemy then tracks the false target instead of the real one. Threat Analysis leverages advanced test and evaluation technologies to stay ahead of the curve as potential enemies constantly work to make their radar systems impervious to our EA techniques. ONE MERCURY Open TM RFM

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