Military pilots and aircrews must be prepared to face hostile, densely populated environments with highly mobile and lethal air defense threats.
These modern emerging threats can operate in all weather conditions, day and night, hiding in terrain, employing adaptive tactics and striking at a time and place of their choosing.
Harris Corporation has been selected by the U.S. Air Force to provide engineering support services for the electronic warfare (EW) systems onboard the international variant of the F-16.
The contract was awarded during the second quarter of Harris’ fiscal 2018.
Harris will provide software updates and engineering support for its AN/ALQ-211(V)4/8/9 Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (AIDEWS) systems, which protect the fleets of F-16s from eight other countries against evolving electronic threats.
(See US and Polish f-16 planes participating in a joint exercise. Courtesy of Daily Military Defense & Archive and YouTube. Posted on Apr 26, 2016)
The ALQ-211 family of systems detects, denies, disrupts, degrades and evades lethal threats and provides multi-spectral (radio frequency, infrared and laser) situational awareness.
When an aircrew encounters a threat emission, the ALQ-211 establishes the threat range from the mission aircraft.
If an aircraft is in lethal range of the threat, the ALQ-211 initiates an integrated instantaneous response, breaking missile lock through RF countermeasures, and cues the use of chaff and flares.
As the aircraft’s survivability suite controller, the ALQ-211 coordinates the response for laser and infrared threats, providing a truly integrated approach to aircraft self-protection.
The ALQ-211 is integrated into the CV-22 Osprey Special Operations aircraft, Norwegian NH 90 multi-mission helicopter and is on board international F-16 fighters for Chile, Poland, Pakistan, Turkey and Oman.
The self-protection system is also applicable for pod-mounted applications and unmanned aerial vehicles.
“The Harris AIDEWS system takes sophisticated electronic protection for the multirole F-16 jet to new levels of performance and flexibility,” said Ed Zoiss, president, Harris Electronic Systems.
“The AIDEWS pod system can be easily transferred from one aircraft to another, allowing the wide variety of global F-16 users to distribute EW capabilities among their fleets according to their mission needs.”
(Learn More. Harris Corporation is a leading technology innovator, solving customers’ toughest mission-critical challenges by providing solutions that connect, inform and protect, and supports government and commercial customers in more than 100 countries. Courtesy of Harris Corporation and YouTube)
