Aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (GHWB)(CVN 77) was awarded the 2014 Association of Old Crows (AOC) Award for outstanding performance from January to December 2013 by the ship’s electronic warfare team, announced by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, Sept. 13.
“The teamwork, professionalism and innovation displayed by the CVN 77 electronic warfare team upheld the highest traditions of the Association of Old Crows and the Naval service, and is most deserving of the recognition afforded by this prestigious unit award,” said Mabus.
The AOC is a non-profit organization that promotes all aspects of electronic warfare within the Department of Defense. This year’s award is presented to the GHWB Electronic Warfare team for outstanding performance with the fourth version of the AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare (EW) system. The anti-ship missile defense system, first introduced in the late 1970s, performs the mission of early detection, signal analysis, threat warning and protection from anti-ship missiles.
“The GHWB Electronic Warfare module put in over 150 man hours installing and op-testing the Electronic Surveillance Enhancements (ESE) unit with our legacy AN/SLQ-32 version 4,” said Lt. Ty Waller, George H.W. Bush electronic warfare officer and information warfare officer. “Upon completion, we conducted several tests to see how well the ESE upgrades identifies and operates in different environments.”
The electronic warfare division conducted the first successful SLQ-32A version 4 electronic surveillance enhancement test at sea, paving the way for future Nimitz class carrier installations. The enhancement will allow carrier fleets the ability to detect more sophisticated threats, enhanced identification and ambiguity reduction, improved time difference of arrival, frequency and bearing resolution and improved system response time in dense anti-ship missile defense environments.
CVN 77’s team was also chosen to conduct Project Gelbray, the first at-sea evaluation utilizing on board electronic attacks in conjunction with an active decoy in an anti-ship cruise missile environment. CVN 77 field tested its own force monitoring equipment in support of military deception operations during composite training unit exercise/fleet battle experiment. The team was able to counter adversarial detection by determining sources of all exploitable friendly emissions and maintain emission control for an extended period.
GHWB Carrier Strike Group deployed Feb. 15, and is operating in the 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
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Press Release, September 18, 2014; Image: US Navy