QinetiQ has announced a significant investment in a new cutting-edge electronic warfare emitter system, strengthening its ability to prepare military personnel for the increasingly complex electromagnetic threat environments they will face in real-world operations.
The mobile emitter system, acquired from Canadian technology company D-TA Systems, will be deployed across compatible MOD sites operated by QinetiQ under the Long-Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA), complementing the company’s established test and training capability with a new level of threat realism and operational flexibility.
What the System Delivers
The new emitter is designed to provide highly realistic simulation of threat-representative radar systems and electromagnetic environments, replicating a wide variety of adversary systems including early warning and tracking. Its wideband frequency coverage, high signal fidelity, and flexible configuration allow crews to train against sophisticated and evolving threats in controlled, repeatable conditions.
The system supports air combat training for both legacy aircraft and fifth-generation platforms including the F-35, as well as naval electronic warfare testing and sea-based training exercises. It also enables intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance training including sensor cueing and detection exercises, and delivers high-fidelity radio frequency signature replication to ensure crews can practice identifying, responding to, and defeating realistic threats.
Critically, the system’s mobile design means it can be deployed across multiple sites around the country, expanding QinetiQ’s ability to support diverse customer requirements without being constrained by fixed infrastructure.
Simon Galt, Managing Director, Air at QinetiQ, said: “By integrating advanced electronic warfare capabilities, we are enhancing how the military prepare for these evolving threats, enabling them to train and operate with greater confidence and effectiveness. This investment reinforces our commitment to continually enhancing our test and training capabilities, strengthening both delivery of the LTPA contract and a broad range of defence programmes for our customers.”
Why Electronic Warfare Training Matters Now
Demand for sophisticated electronic warfare threat training is growing rapidly. Lessons from recent conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, have underscored the extent to which the electromagnetic spectrum has become a critical domain of modern warfare, with adversaries deploying increasingly capable radar, jamming, and electronic attack systems. The ability to train against realistic, high-fidelity representations of those threats before encountering them operationally is no longer a nice-to-have but a warfighting necessity.
QinetiQ’s investment positions it to meet that growing demand across both UK and allied defence customers, reinforcing its long-term standing in advanced defence test and training services at a time when electronic warfare capability is a top priority for military modernisation programmes.
LTPA and the Broader Test and Evaluation Landscape
The LTPA is one of the UK’s most significant defence support contracts, covering the operation and development of MOD’s test and evaluation ranges and facilities. QinetiQ’s continued investment in capability under the agreement demonstrates the kind of long-term, sustained commitment to sovereign test and training infrastructure that underpins the UK’s ability to develop, qualify, and field advanced military systems.
For the wider defence supply chain, investments of this kind also signal growing opportunities in the electronic warfare, test and evaluation, and training technology sectors, areas where UK industrial capability and international partnerships are increasingly valued.
Image: QinetiQ
