Four defence companies have been awarded US Navy contracts worth over $168m to develop next-generation jammer electronic pods.

Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and ITT Corporation have received the contracts to develop demonstrator versions of a jammer to defeat future generation air defence radars, according to defencenews.com.

The new jammer will replace the US Navy’s aging ALQ-99 jamming system, which is mounted on an EA-6B Prowler and the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets to intercept and jam radio frequency signals.

The US Department of Defence intends to develop enhanced jamming and countermeasure systems for use on the future stealthy, long-range unmanned aerial vehicles.