Martin Streetly/LONDON
Lockheed Martin has awarded Racal-Thorn Defence a contract worth more than £10 million ($16.6 million) to develop and fabricate a radio-frequency countermeasures-techniques generator for use with a Raytheon E-Systems fibre-optic towed decoy to be carried by the UK's British Aerospace Nimrod 2000 maritime-patrol aircraft.
Racal and GEC-Marconi were believed to be competing for the contract, which involves delivering an integration model to Lockheed Martin in September 1998. The system will then undergo a year-long trials programme before going into production.
Technically, the equipment under development is based on Racal's work with the UK's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency on an advanced jamming-system technology demonstrator. The Nimrod 2000 equipment will incorporate a digital radio-frequency memory and software threat-parameter and counter- measures-techniques libraries.
The system is reported to be able to generate a coherent response in noise, deception and repeater modes, and interfaces with the towed decoy via a fibre-optic modulator. Threat cueing will be performed by Lockheed Martin's ALR-56M radar-warning receiver. The new system is claimed to be able to counter three times the number of simultaneous threats than can be handled by other available equipment.
Racal and Lockheed Martin are also understood to have signed a formal collaborative agreement under which the new techniques generator will form part of future Lockheed Martin large-aircraft defensive-aids-subsystem offers. Target markets are likely to include the Lockheed Martin C-130J.
Source: Flight International
