Harris Corporation has been chosen by the U.S. Air Force to provide engineering support services for the electronic warfare (EW) systems onboard the international variants of the F-16. The contract was awarded during the second quarter of Harris’ fiscal year 2018.
Harris will provide software updates and engineering support for its AN/ALQ-211(V)4/8/9 Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (AIDEWS) system that provides an internal, fully integrated radar warning and radio frequency (RF) countermeasures capability. The suite consists of a Digital Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), a Digital RF Memory Based Jammer – which is capable of defeating pulse, pulse doppler, and continuous wave threats – and an Electronic Warfare Control. AIDEWS is a modular electronic warfare system for a wide array of fighter aircraft ensuring EW capability for deployment around the world. When the aircrew encounters a threat emission, the ALQ-211 establishes the threat range from the mission aircraft. If an aircraft is in lethal range of the threat, the ALQ-211 initiates an instantaneous response and is capable of coordinating the response for laser and infrared threats.
“The Harris AIDEWS system takes sophisticated electronic protection for the multirole F-16 jet to new levels of performance and flexibility,” said Ed Zoiss, president, Harris Electronic Systems. “The AIDEWS pod system can be easily transferred from one aircraft to another, allowing the wide variety of global F-16 users to distribute EW capabilities among their fleets according to their mission needs.”