Jane Edwards
The U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin have wrapped up a preliminary design review of a helicopter-based electronic warfare pod designed to help warfighters detect and respond to anti-ship missile threats.
Lockheed said Tuesday its Advanced Off-Board Electronic Warfare Active Mission Payload AN/ALQ-248 system aboard Sikorsky-made MH-60 helicopters works to provide the aircraft with surveillance capabilities against ASM threats through the use of radio frequency countermeasure methods.
AOEW can function independently or work with the ship“™s SEWIP Block 2 AN/SLQ-32(V)6 electronic surveillance sensor to detect and assess the trajectory of incoming missile threats.
Lockheed developed the EW platform under a potential $42 million contract awarded by the Navy for system design and development work and expects the service branch to award the contract“™s engineering and manufacturing development phase later this year.
Lockheed is scheduled to begin production of AOEW systems in early 2018 at its Syracuse, New York-based facility.
