L3Harris to build shipboard electronic warfare (EW) payloads to protect Navy ships from anti-ship missiles
WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy shipboard electronic warfare (EW) experts are asking L3Harris Technologies Inc. to build special EW payloads to help protect Navy warships from enemy anti-ship cruise missiles.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington announced a potential $124 million sole-source contract on Thursday for the MK 234 10/11/12/13 Nulka Advanced Decoy Architecture Program (ADAP) series payloads.
The ADAP payload provides an advanced EW transmitter and increased signal processing capability to target specific threats that the current payload on the shipboard Nulka decoy does not. The initial value of the contract is $33.6 million.
ADAP payloads are designed to lure missiles away from their intended targets with advanced electronic techniques. The ADAP payloads are an upgrade to the existing Nulka decoy.
Nulka is a joint program with Australia, and is in service with the Australian, Canadian, and U.S. navies. Nulka consists of the MK 53 decoy-launching system and MK 234 offboard active decoy to defeat hostile anti-ship missiles.
The MK 53 DLS consists of a decoy launch processor, launching power supplies, and from two to six launchers depending on the ship class. Each launcher can store and launch two Nulka decoys. The MK 53 DLS provides the launch authorization and flight demands to the Nulka decoy when a Nulka engagement is initiated.
The MK 53 DLS has been installed on U.S. Ticonderoga-class cruisers, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, Whidbey Island- and Harpers Ferry-class amphibious assault ships.
On this contract L3Harris will do the work Clifton and Hamilton, N.J.; Rancho Cordova, Calif.; Ronkonkoma, N.Y.; and Andover, Mass., and should be finished by April 2026.
For more information contact L3Harris online at www.l3harris.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at Paste link here.
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.
