Harris chosen to provide electronic warfare (EW) avionics to protect Kuwaiti combat aircraft from missiles
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. –Electronic warfare (EW) experts at Harris Corp. will provide sophisticated EW systems to the government of Kuwait that are designed to protect combat aircraft from incoming radar-guided missiles.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., on Friday announced a $43.3 million order to the Harris Electronic Systems segment in Clifton, N.J., for additional lot 16 AN/ALQ-214 A(V)4/5 EW jammers for F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter-bombers for the Kuwaiti military.
The AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 is an electronic jammer component of the integrated defensive electronic counter measures system (IDECM) avionics, which is from a joint venture of Harris and BAE Systems. It protects fighter-bombers from radar-guided surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles by jamming the enemy missile guidance systems.
One year ago Boeing agreed to sell 28 Super Hornets to Kuwait worth as much as $1.2 billion. Of this order, 22 will be single-seat F/A-18E models and six will be F/A-18Fs -- the two-seat version of the jet. The U.S. State Department approved the Super Hornet sale to Kuwait in November 2016.
The ALQ-214 component of the IDECM EW system has been delivered to the U.S. Navy and to the Royal Australian Air Force for contemporary versions of the Boeing F/A-18 combat aircraft. The system blends sensitive receivers and active countermeasures to form an electronic shield around the aircraft, Harris officials say.
Last month Harris won a $168.8 million order to provide the U.S. Navy with 78 AN/ALQ-214 A(V)4/5 EW jammers for F/A-18C/D and F/A-18E/F combat jets.
The RF countermeasure system engages incoming missiles autonomously with a series of measures designed to protect the aircraft from detection. The AN/ALQ-214(V)4 a smaller and lighter version of its predecessors, and has an open-architecture design that is ready for integration on several different kinds of aircraft.
The system is designed to counter radar-guided anti-aircraft missiles with electronic countermeasures (ECM) techniques that deny, disrupt, delay, and degrade the enemy missile launch and engagement sequence. The system identifies, ranks, and counters incoming missiles, and displays engagements to the flight crew for situational awareness.
The AN/ALQ-214 originally was developed by ITT Avionics in Clifton, N.J. That company became Exelis in a 2011 spin-off, and Harris acquired Exelis in 2015.
On this order Harris will do the work in On this contract Harris will do the work in Clifton, N.J.; as well as in San Jose, San Diego, Rancho Cordova, and Mountain View, Calif., and should be finished by August 2022.
For more information contact Harris Electronic Systems online at www.harris.com/es, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
