USSOCOM EW contracts awarded

The US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has issued funding to two companies to further develop new electronic warfare equipment for C-130J aircraft, it was announced on 4 January.

BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman have been awarded the funding to develop new suites for the fleet as the first phase of a multi-phase programme to upgrade aircraft system survivability and the capability to detect, identify, locate, deny, degrade, disrupt and defeat threat systems in operational significant environments.

The companies will carry out product development and platform integration work over the next 12 months. 

The radio frequency countermeasure system will be designed to increase the self-protection capabilities of the MC-130J Commando II and the AC-130J Ghostrider aircraft to support the varied and critical missions of special forces operations. These missions include the use of C-130Js for armed over-watch and refueling of helicopters in denied territories, and for close air support and interdiction missions in sensitive and hostile territories.

Brian Walters, vice president and general manager of Electronic Combat Solutions at BAE Systems, said: ‘This award is a significant milestone as it not only builds on our strong electronic warfare legacy, but also extends our proven electronic warfare capability to a large platform aircraft. Our all-digital RFCM system will ensure the mission-critical C-130J fleet remains capable and protected in the harshest environments.’

Jeff Palombo, division vice president and general manager, Northrop Grumman, said: ‘Our solution is designed to detect and defeat not only current radio frequency threats, but also to have the flexibility to protect our warfighters as the threat evolves.

‘Our solution is built upon our high confidence aircraft protection systems of today, coupled with an open architecture approach that enables our offering to grow to a multi-spectral, multi-function capability for the future. This approach is a subtle, yet important characteristic of our offering that protects our customer's investment in their initial RFCM system procurement while positioning AFSOC AC/MC-130 gunships for the complex battlespace of the immediate future.’