HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – U.S. Air Force combat training range experts needed a Common Electronic Attack Receiver (CEAR) for AN/MST-T1V Mini-Multiple Threat Emitter System (Mini-MUTES) B-Pedestals. They found a solution from Southwest Research Institute (SWrI) in San Antonio.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Weapons segment at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, announced a $16.8 million sole-source contract to SWrI in September for the multiple threat emitter simulator (MUTES), mini-MUTES, MUTES control processor, and a remote emitter unit control processor.
The CEAR was developed in 2014 by SRC Inc. in Syracuse, N.Y., to replace the Joint Threat Emitter (JTE) and Unmanned Threat Emitter (UMTE) legacy electronic attack receivers.
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Component obsolescence has rendered Mini-MUTES legacy electronic counter measures (ECM) receivers no longer useable and have been replaced with a placeholder ECM receiver for the Mini-MUTES modernization proposal pedestals.
The system's legacy ECM receiver, all assemblies, subassemblies, and most components are obsolete and cannot be manufactured from existing drawings or materials, and there are no Mini-MUTES B-Pedestals with operational ECM receivers in the field for aircrew training.
The Air Force is asking SWrI to re-engineer and test three developmental Mini-MUTES CEARs, and build 23 production representative articles CEARs for integration into Mini-MUTES B-pedestal for Air Force airborne electronic warfare training.
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The intent is to use existing CEAR electronic circuit cards to design and manufacture a replacement ECM receiver for the Mini-MUTES B-Pedestals to mitigate obsolescence and reinstate EW training capability.
SWrI experts will build an ECM receiver to replace the current hardware and software integrated with the redesigned remote emitter unit control processor.
On this contract SWrI will do the work in San Antonio, and should be finished by September 2026. For more information contact the Southwest Research Institute online at www.swri.org, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Weapons segment-Hill Air Force Base at https://www.hill.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1583368/#:~:text=The%20Air%20Force%20Life%20Cycle,Wright-Patterson%20AFB%2C%20Ohio..
