WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – U.S. Air Force airborne electronic warfare (EW) experts are asking the Boeing Co. and BAE Systems to provide EW systems for the U.S. F-15E jet fighter-bomber under terms of a $615.8 million order announced on Monday.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, are asking the Boeing Defense, Space & Security segment in St. Louis for F-15 Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS) full-rate production for F-15E aircraft.
Airborne EW avionics
The BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Nashua, N.H., is the primary designer and manufacturer of the F-15 EPAWSS airborne EW avionics. The contract covers Group A and Group B kits, system engineering program management, and interim contractor support lay-in material.
The F-15 EPAWSS replaces an analog federated avionics system with a next-generation, digital, integrated EW suite that enables the F-15 to operate in the presence of modern EW threats with dense radio-frequency backgrounds.
Related: Wanted: airborne electronic warfare (EW) situational awareness software that runs on SOSA-aligned computers
The updated EW avionics improves pilot situational awareness with the capability to autonomously detect, identify, and locate threat systems, and then deny, degrade, and disrupt those threats. Boeing manufactures the F-15 and serves as the integrator for the program, and BAE Systems is producing the advanced EW hardware.
Situational awareness
EPAWSS increases the aircrew's situational awareness, helps them understand when they are being targeted by radar, and it provides them with advanced techniques to counter modern integrated air defense systems.
On this order Boeing and BAE Systems will do the work in St. Louis and Nashua, N.H., and should be finished by December 2030. For more information contact BAE Systems Electronic Systems online at www.baesystems.com/en-us/product/eagle-passive-active-warning-survivability-system-epawss, Boeing Defense, Space & Security at www.boeing.com/company/about-bds, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center www.aflcmc.af.mil.
