The US Navy has awarded Raytheon and BAE Systems contracts to demonstrate their technologies for the development of a modern towed decoy for the F/A-18 E/F over the next 27 months.
The technology protects pilots by emitting signals across extended frequencies to counter advancing threats, convincing hostile weapon systems that the real target is the decoy, not the aircraft.
Raytheon has received $33 million to develop a decoy that would be based on the ALE-50 system that has been deployed in protection of US and allied aircraft.
BAE Systems got $36.7 million to demonstrate a system based on the ALE-55 FOTD.
“ALE-55 FOTD is a reliable, high-powered jamming system with years of mission success on the F/A-18E/F and extensive flight-testing on a variety of aircraft. Under this new Dual Band Decoy contract, our focus will be building upon the ALE-55’s proven performance in order to defeat the threats of tomorrow,” said Tom McCarthy, Dual Band Decoy Program Director at BAE Systems.