Navy, Lockheed Complete Helicopter-Based Electronic Warfare Pod Preliminary Design Review

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.