L3Harris to upgrade AN/ALQ-214 electronic warfare (EW) avionics for Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet combat jets
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – Electronic warfare (EW) experts at L3Harris Technologies Inc. will modify and upgrade U.S. Navy sophisticated EW systems designed to protect Navy 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 $51.9 million three-year order to L3Harris in Clifton, N.J., to provide modifications to the AN/ALQ-214 A(V)4/5 EW jammers for Navy F/A-18C/D and F/A-18E/F Hornet and Super Hornet carrier-based fighter-bombers.
The AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 is an electronic jammer component of the integrated defensive electronic counter measures system (IDECM) avionics, which comes to the Navy from a joint venture of L3Harris 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.
This order asks L3Harris to provide non-recurring engineering to develop, integrate, test and deliver software, firmware, and technical data, as well as to correct deficiencies discovered in the AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 during testing in support of a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer, Navy officials say.
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 combat jets. The system blends sensitive receivers and active countermeasures to form an electronic shield around the aircraft, L3Harris officials say.
The RF countermeasure system aboard the Navy's F/A-18 jet fighter-bombers 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.
On this contract L3Harris will do the work in Clifton, N.J., and should be finished by November 2022. For more information contact L3Harris Technologies online at www.l3harris.com, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
