Electronic Warfare

Frontgrade offers a variety of cable assemblies for electronic warfare applications. Whether you are designing EW systems for airborne, ground, shipboard or missiles and precision guided weapons applications, we have a cable to meet your design needs.

Designed specifically for electronic warfare applications, Frontgrade cables are offered in a variety of features and configurations. We are also happy to work with you to design a custom solution that meets your exact requirements and specifications. 

Airborne: Very Low Loss

In many applications, increased signal strength may equate to higher system performance. For those situations, we offer cable assemblies with solid center conductors to provide an even lower loss interconnect than our stranded center conductor cable assemblies.

Similar to our high performance electronic warfare cable assemblies, our very low loss family meets the requirements of the major military specifications MIL-T-81490 and MIL-C-871 04, which will meet the demanding requirements of your application.

Airborne: Lightweight

Frontgrade offers new lightweight cable products utilizing the properties of our proven FN34RX cable assemblies. These products are intended for use in high-performance airborne applications, including commercial aircraft. The FN34RX assembly is a DC to 18 GHz, 0.34" diameter cable, operational at temperatures up to +200° C. This reduced weight FN34RXLW uses a silver-plated, copper-clad aluminum center conductor and silver-plated aluminum shielding. It has a greater than 32 percent weight reduction with no impact on electrical performance.

Military Ground and Shipboard 

Coaxial cable runs for mast applications require a flexible cable that permits flexing during installation, service, and sometimes the actual operation of the system. Braided electrical shields and PTFE tape-wrapped dielectric make a cable assembly flexible and pliable.

These allow repeated flexures without damage. When long, continuous runs of coaxial cable (up to 1800 ft) are needed to connect an antenna and a transmit/receive module, the unique construction of our mast cables permits the cable to be mounted on a reel for re-deployable systems. We also supply cable assembly on the reel with pulling grips and hangers ready to use in your system. Shipboard versions of this cable, identified by the part number code LSX, are designed for low smoke and halogen free jackets. Both ground-based and shipboard cables also can be supplied with a solid center conductor for lower loss.

Missiles and Precision Guided Weapons

Many cables in this group feature unique constructions to assure long flexure life under constant scanning conditions. Most of these products are helically shielded designs to provide excellent VSWR, very low loss, improved phase stability versus temperature, lightweight, and low bending force.

These products are ideally suited for interconnecting modules within subsystems or devices within modules in very densely packed locations. Their versatile designs can substantially improve system performance and reliability. Although intended for missile applications, many of these cables are appropriate for high performance military aircraft.

Cables are available in both phase matched and insertion loss matched sets. Frontgrade cables meet or exceed stringent environmental requirements.