Navy orders 48 sophisticated electronic warfare jammers for Navy combat jets
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. - Electronic warfare (EW) experts at Exelis Inc. in Clifton, N.J., will provide the U.S. Navy with 48 sophisticated EW systems designed to protect Navy com- bat aircraft from incoming radar- guided missiles.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $88.3 million contract option to Exelis to build 48 full-rate production lot 13 AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 integrated defensive electronic countermeasures jammer systems for the Navy's F/A-18C/D and F/A-18E/F Hornet and Super Hornet carrier-based strike fighters.
The AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 is an electronic jammer component of the integrated defensive electronic countermeasures system (IDECM), which comes to the Navy from a joint venture of Exelis and BAE Systems. It protects Navy fighter-bombers from radar-guided surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles by jamming the enemy missile guidance systems. Exelis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Fla.
Last July, Exelis won a $97.3 million contract to build 46 AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 IDECM jammers for Navy combat jets. This latest order brings the value of the contract to $185.6 million for a total of 94 AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 systems.
The ALQ-214 component of the IDECM EW system has been delivered to the Navy as well as to the Royal Australian Air Force for contemporary versions of the Boeing F/A-18 fighter-bomber. The system blends sensitive receivers and active countermeasures to form an electronic shield around the aircraft, Exelis officials say.
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 is 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.
Exelis will do the work in Clifton, N.J.; San Jose, Calif.; San Diego; Rancho Cordova, Calif.; Mountain View, Calif.; Hudson, N.H.; and other U.S. locations, and should be finished by December 2018.
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Exelis online at www.exelisinc.com/pages/default.aspx.
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.
