The U.S. Navy awarded Harris Corp. [HRS] a $133 million contract to provide 50 electronic countermeasure onboard jammers (OBJ) for the U.S. and Australia F/A-18 C/D/E/F Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft, the company said Oct. 16.
Harris is set to make and deliver specifically Lot 14 ALQ-214(V)4/5 Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) jammers to the U.S. and Australia. A company spokesperson told sister publication Defense Daily that of the 50 total units for Lot 14, three or four will be delivered to Australia.
These ALQ-214(V)4/5 jammers are the core onboard warfare jamming system from the IDECM program. They protect aircraft from various electronic threats, including modern integrated air defense systems, the company said.
This (V)4/5 jammers are an upgrade over legacy (V)3 versions which are currently deployed on the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F aircraft. The new systesm are currently being upgraded on the F/A-18s while in full rate production. (V)4/5 is smaller and lighter while having a Modular Open System Architecture (MOSA) compliant design. This allows the system to have technology insertion to deal with future threats.
The full ALQ-214(V)4/5 system weighs about 200-220 pounds depending on being version (V) 4 or (V)5.
Harris said in an explanatory data sheet these jammers feature autonomous operations in hostile environments to protect the aircraft from advanced radio frequency (RF)-guided threats. The countermeasures deny, disrupt, and degrade launch and engagement sequences of missile threats.
“Naval aviators face a growing range of threats as their missions evolve and hostile actors gain access to increasingly advanced technology. Harris has helped keep naval aviators ahead of emerging threats for nearly 20 years. We remain firmly committed to supporting their critical missions,” Ed Zoiss, president of Harris’s electronic systems business segment,
Harris said the contract was awarded during the first quarter of its fiscal year 2018. Deliveries to both countries are due to be finished by May 2020.
Deliveries to Australia will proceed through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.