BAE Systems announced it has received a $4 million contract from the US Navy to carry out a quick-turnaround demonstration of a new radio frequency countermeasure (RFCM) system for the P-8A Poseidon.
The pod-mounted RFCM system is a high-power system that is expected to add a new self-protection capability to US Navy maritime patrol aircraft, the company says.
The RFCM system consists of a small form factor jammer, a high-powered amplifier and the AN/ALE-55 Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD). Work on the contract will be performed at the company’s facility in Nashua, New Hampshire.
BAE says it will design, build, integrate, and ship the RFCM system in approximately five months, followed by two months of flight testing on the P-8A Poseidon platform. Testing will begin early in 2021.
“A process that used to take 18 to 24 months has been scaled to five or six months, which is remarkable, as is deploying this new self-protection capability,” said Don Davidson, director of the Advanced Compact Electronic Warfare Solutions product line at BAE Systems.
The company said the rapid response was the result of collaboration among small focus teams who developed an innovative approach to the design and fabrication of the system’s mechanical parts.
