Lockheed Martin to upgrade AN/ALQ-217 ESM system
Lockheed Martin is to upgrade the US Navy’s AN/ALQ-217 Electronic Support Measures (ESM) system for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft.
The work will be carried out under a $43 million contract modification announced on 14 January. The modification increases the scope of the existing E-2D AN/ALQ-217D ESM and provides upgrades to the receiver/processor, active front end and receiver antenna weapons replaceable assemblies.
The upgrade will deliver enhanced situational awareness performance of the system in dense littoral and open-ocean environments, and improve autonomy to reduce operator workload, enable faster reaction time and improve survivability.
Specifically, upgrades include improved combat identification networked-EW for multi-ship geo-location with other Carrier Air Wing aircraft and detection of advanced threat radar systems. In addition, the upgrades further improve the platform’s antennas and active front ends.
The Lockheed Martin team will deliver several AN/ALQ-217D ESM upgrade kits to support development and test through 2023.
Related Equipment in Defence Insight
More from Digital Battlespace
-
DSEI 2025: MARSS unveils new agnostic multidomain C4 system
MARSS’ NiDAR system has been deployed using sensors from static platforms to provide detection and protection for static sights, such as critical infrastructure, ports and military bases.
-
Australia looks towards space with force restructure, investment and training
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
-
EID to unveil new vehicle communication system at DSEI
The Portuguese company’s naval communications system is in service across more than a dozen countries. It has turned to its home nation for support in developing a new vehicle based C2 system.
-
Chess Dynamics successfully demonstrates Vision4ce AI-driven tracker
The Vision4ce Deep Embedded Feature Tracking (DEFT) technology software is designed to process video and images by blending traditional computer vision with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to present actionable information from complex environments.
-
Wave Relay devices cleared for security use on commercial systems in industry trend
Persistent Systems has been cleared by National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit sensitive data on commercial networks. The devices are added to the NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) component list which also includes other companies’ products providing the same security.
-
UK teases cyber spending boost in Strategic Defence Review ahead of “imminent” release
The release of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) has been long promised as mid-year. It is possible it could be as early as 2 June although the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to play its cards close to its chest.