EFW to provide replacement avionics displays for F/A-18 E/F jets in $19.8 million contract

PHILADELPHIA, 23 Sept. 2013.Avionics display designers at EFW Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the U.S. Navy with multi-purpose color display (MPCD) units under terms of a $19.8 million contract awarded Friday.

EFW, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd. in Haifa, Israel, was selected in 2004 to provide MPCD display units for the Navy's Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet carrier-based jet fighter-bomber. Awarding the contract Friday were officials of the Defense Logistics Agency's aviation activity in Philadelphia.

EFW provides the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet MPCD units, as well as the jet's upfront control display (UFCD). In 2004 EFW won a potential $45 million contract to provide Super Hornet maker Boeing with UFCDs and MPCDs. Friday's contract from the Defense Logistics Agency is for MPCD replacements.

The Defense Logistics Agency provides the military with logistics, acquisition, and technical services, and provides nearly all consumable items that the U.S. military needs to operate, electronics replacement parts, food, fuel, energy, uniforms, medical supplies, and construction equipment.

The EFW UFCD and MPCD units were designed to provide a significant improvement in reliability and mission operational readiness and reduced life cycle cost for Super Hornet jets.

The MPCD units from EFW are designed to present information and crisp, sensor video images that enhance communication, navigation, and situational awareness. the displays use active-matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) technology.

The displays also have backlights to deliver high brightness even in direct sunlight while enabling extreme dimmability for night operation in excess of 20,000:1. The units also have real-time and non-real-time processors, as well as graphics accelerators and generators.

Another feature of the EFW MPCD units is multiple picture-in-picture windowing, and software for the displays to perform primary flight display, situational awareness, digital real-time moving map, fusion of sensor video with digital maps, digital terrain elevation, threat intervisibility, data sharing, and messaging.

The five-year sole-source contract awarded to EFW Friday calls for the company to do the work in Texas and Israel, and to be finished by September 2018. EFW is part of Elbit Systems of America.

For more information contact Elbit Systems of America online at www.elbitsystems-us.com, or the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation at www.aviation.dla.mil.