Navy orders 46 electronic warfare jammers for Navy F/A-18 fighter-bombers
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 12 Aug. 2015. Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the Exelis Inc. in Clifton, N.J., will provide the U.S. Navy with 46 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., have announced a $97.3 million contract to Exelis to build 46 full-rate production lot XII AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5 integrated defensive electronic countermeasures airborne 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.
This effort also includes the repair of test assets and field support for the AN/ALQ-214(V)4/5. Exelis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Fla.
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.
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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 Exelis will do the work in Clifton, N.J.; San Jose, Calif.; San Diego; Rancho Cordova, Calif.; Mountain View, Calif.; Hudson, N.H.; and other U.S. locations, and should be finished by December 2017.
For more information contact Exelis Electronic Systems online at www.exelisinc.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.
