F/A-18's Decoy for Australia and US Navy

28 September 2009

AN/ALE-55 concept (photo : Defense Industry Daily)

ALE-55 Towed Fighter Decoys for US Navy, Australia

“Raytheon’s ALE-50 ‘Little Buddy’ Decoys" covered a towed system that serves with F-16 Falcon/Viper, F/A-18 Hornet family, and B-1B Lancer heavy bomber aircraft.

A related system is made by competitor BAE, whose AN/ALE-55 (V) consists of an electronic frequency converter (EFC) and a fiber optic towed decoy. It works together with an aircraft’s onboard electronic warfare (EW) equipment, throughout the ECM cycle of Suppression (harder to acquire or track), Deception (active jamming techniques aimed at launchers); and Seduction (active jamming aimed at the missile, and being a decoying target if all else fails).

Sept 22/09: Raytheon in Goleta, CA received a $6.7 million firm-fixed-price contract to retrofit 603 integrated multi-platform launch controllers (IMPLCs) on F/A-18 aircraft for the US Navy (576 for $5.9 million, 89%) and the government of Australia (27 for $764,613, 11%). The IMPLC is the launch controller component of the AN/ALE-50 and AN/ALE-55.

Work will be performed in Goleta, CA (99%) and Fullerton, CA (1%), and is expected to be complete in April 2013. This contract was not competitively procured, pursuant to the FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract (N00019-09-C-0036).

ALE-55 concept (image : Defense Industry Daily)

April 17/09: BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems in Nashua, NH received a $33.7 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-08-C-0044) for the Low Rate Initial Production Lot V of the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) AN/ALE-55 (V) Subsystems and associated technical support and non-recurring engineering for the U.S. Navy (70 EFCs, 251 decoys, $27.5 million, 81.57%) and Royal Australian Air Force (12 EFCs, 72 decoys, $6.2 million, 18.43%) F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. Both customers have also purchased Raytheon’s AN/ALE-50s in the past, and continue to do so.

BAE Systems’ release states that it began low-rate initial production of the AN/ALE-55 Lot IV in June 2008, and is expected to complete production of Lot V in September 2011. When combined with the previous Lot IV award, this Lot V production award increases total deliveries to 473, and the total contract value to $65.6 million. Work will be performed in Nashua, NH (92%) and Mountain View, CA (8%), and is expected to be complete in August 2011. The US Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD manages this contract.

June 26/08: BAE Systems, Electronics and Integrated Solutions in Nashua, NH received a $31.9 million firm-fixed-fee contract for the low rate initial production Lot IV of the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures AN/ALE-55(V) Subsystems and associated technical support for the U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F aircraft. The AN/ALE-55(V) subsystem consists of an electronic frequency converter (EFC) and a fiber optic towed decoy (FOTD). This contract provides for a total of 54 EFCs and 150 FOTDs. In addition, this contract provides for non-recurring and sustaining engineering for production support, first article test analysis, and physical configuration audits for the EFCs and FOTDs.
Work will be performed in Nashua, NH (92%) and Mountain View, CA (8%), and is expected to be complete in October 2011. This contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD (N00019-08-C-0044).

(Defense Industry Daily)