25 janvier 2021 | International, Naval, C4ISR
1/20/2021
By Mandy Mayfield
The Navy recently awarded BAE systems a $4 million contract for a “quick turnaround” demonstration of a new radio frequency countermeasures system for the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, the company announced in January.
“Its primary mission is twofold. First, it's to prevent an enemy radar from locking” onto U.S. aircraft, said Don Davidson, director of the advanced compact electronic warfare solutions product line at BAE Systems. However, “if they do get a radar lock and fire a missile, its ultimate purpose is to seduce the missile away from the platform.”
The system will be pod-mounted and include a small form factor jammer, a high-powered amplifier and BAE's AN/ALE-55 fiber-optic towed decoy.
The decoy has been used on board other Navy aircraft such as the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
“Right now on the P-8A, they don't have any of the equipment required to support a self-protection system,” Davidson said in an interview.
“We had to put all that equipment within a pod that can be mounted on the aircraft without requiring anything on the aircraft itself.”
The company will design, build and integrate the systems at its Nashua, New Hampshire, facility. Following the integration, they will be tested for two months in early 2021 on the P-8A.
“This need for speed is even more prevalent today than it has been in years past,” Davidson said.
The Navy issued a white paper identifying concerns about emerging threats with regard to surface-to-air missiles and asked for a self-protection capability to be delivered quickly, he noted.
“Since we do this for a living, we had a lot of products and capabilities that we had developed for other applications that we were able to leverage,” he said. “We could take these existing capabilities, integrate them together — they're small enough to fit in this pod — and we could bring this capability to bear in what has essentially been five months.”
The completed pod was slated to be delivered at the end of January, he said.
14 mars 2024 | International, Sécurité
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg launched his annual report for 2023 on Thursday (14 March 2024), which covers all aspects of the Alliance’s work over the past year.
28 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By Garrett Reim Japan's ministry of defence is inviting foreign suppliers to help develop the country's next-generation fighter aircraft, known as the Future Fighter programme, or F-X. The solicitation was made via a public notice and a press briefing by Japanese defence minister Taro Kono on 25 August, according to reports. The Japanese ministry of defence wants components that are at high-technology readiness levels, in areas such as stealth unmanned air vehicles, airborne missile systems, radar, sensors, electronic warfare and communications equipment, according to media outlet Janes. The notice reportedly adds that this next phase will continue discussions related to development of F-X with the USA and UK. “We are inviting companies to [support] the integration of the fighter aircraft,” Kono says. “We are currently exchanging information with the US and UK to deepen our consideration of international co-operation in this development project.” In July, the ministry of defence said it would choose a single Japanese company to serve as prime contractor and lead systems integrator for the jet, according to Janes. That company is thought likely be Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds the Mitsubishi F-15J and runs a final assembly and check-out facility for the F-35 Lightning II in Nagoya, Japan. The Future Fighter is to replace Tokyo's Mitsubishi F-2 fleet in the 2030s. The F-2 is a fighter derived from Lockheed Martin's F-16. Mass production of the F-X is reportedly planned to start in 2031. The next-generation aircraft would be deployed in 2035. https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/japan-requests-foreign-help-with-f-x-as-programme-moves-into-next-phase-reports/139927.article?referrer=RSS
22 septembre 2021 | International, Naval
Navy leaders are concerned about increased Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic and Chinese submarine activity in the Pacific. The U.S. homeland is no longer a sanctuary from such threats, they warn.