Australia and the USA are to develop a framework allowing the transfer of electronic-warfare (EW) threat data as part of a proposed expansion of interoperability arrangements between the two countries.
The proposed arrangement follows Australian criticism of US State Department restrictions imposed last year on access to EW technologies for the Royal Australian Air Force's now-suspended Echidna integrated self-protection requirement.
The new framework proposal emerged from talks between EW officials from both countries at a meeting of the Australia-USA Ministerial Acquisition Council in Canberra last month. Shireane McKinnie, director-general of EW and radar systems at the Australian Department of Defence (DoD), confirms that "interoperability and electronic warfare were major issues on the agenda".
The Australian DoD is expected this month to release to industry initial details of its proposed restructuring of the Echidna project, suspended in January.
Source: Flight International
