ITT DEFENSE & Electronics, with partner Sanders, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, has been selected to provide the US Navy and US Air Force with the Integrated Defensive Electronic-Countermeasures (IDECM) system.
The team has received an initial $27 million contract from the USN to begin development of the IDECM's radio-frequency countermeasures subsystem. The IDECM work is worth several billion dollars because the system will be installed on USN McDonnell Douglas F-18E/Fs and US Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-15s and Rockwell B-1s. Also competing for the jamming-system contract were Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Westinghouse/Tracor.
The IDECM replaces the cancelled ITT/Westinghouse ALQ-165 Airborne Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ), which has been sold to Finland and Switzerland.
Louis Giuliano, president and chief executive of ITT Defense & Electronics disclosed that South Korea has now agreed. to buy the ASPJ and that the sale is expected to be finalised, in the first quarter of 1996. The South Korean air force flies 39 Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs, and is buying a further 120 F-16C/Ds. The US Clinton Administration approved an export licence on the ASPJ for South Korea in 1993, but the deal was stalled over terms and conditions of the contract.
ITT believes that it has cornered the international market for jammers. Aside from the IDECM and the ASPJ, the firm is developing the ALQ-136 Advanced Technology Radar Jammer (ATRJ) for use on helicopters. "The IDECM replaces the ASPJ for the Pentagon, and it will help sales in the international marketplace," says Giuliano.
The USN killed the ASPJ in 1992, after disputed operational tests showed that it was unsuitable for US combat aircraft. Despite this, the Pentagon approved the emergency use of the ASPJ on US Marine Corps F-18Ds supporting air operations over Bosnia.
Source: Flight International
