Navy taps Exelis for 42 airborne electronic warfare systems to equip carrier-based jet fighter-bomber aircraft

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 23 March 2014. Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the Exelis Electronic Systems segment in Clifton, N.J., will provide the U.S. Navy with 42 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., announced a $91.7 million contract award to Exelis to build 42 AN/ALQ-214(V)4 on-board 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 counter measures 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 missile guidance systems.

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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 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 AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 is the most advanced self-protection jammer system in the world today, Exelis officials claim.

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The system is designed to counter radar-guided 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 Exelis will do the work in Clifton, N.J.; San Jose, Calif.; San Diego; Rancho Cordova, Calif.; Mountain View, Calif.; Hudson, N.H.; West Springfield, Mass.; and other U.S. locations, and should be finished by November 2016.

For more information contact Exelis Electronic Systems online at www.exelisinc.com/business/electronicsys, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.