BAE Systems received a $4 million contract from the U.S. Navy to conduct a quick-turnaround demonstration of a new radio frequency countermeasure (RFCM) system for the P-8A Poseidon.

The pod-mounted RFCM system is a “leading-edge, lightweight, high-power system” that will add a new self-protection capability to this next-generation U.S. Navy aircraft.

“The ability to meet this unprecedented response time underscores our agility, focus on meeting customer needs, and our ultimate goal of protecting our warfighters,” said Don Davidson, director of the Advanced Compact Electronic Warfare Solutions product line at BAE Systems.

“A process that used to take 18 to 24 months has been scaled to five or six months, which is remarkable, as is deploying this new self-protection capability.”

The firm say that the rapid response is the result of collaboration among small focus teams who developed an innovative approach to the design and fabrication of the system’s mechanical parts. As a result, BAE Systems will design, build, integrate, and ship the RFCM system in approximately five months, followed by two months of flight testing on the P-8A Poseidon platform. Testing will begin early in 2021.

The RFCM system consists of a small form factor jammer, a high-powered amplifier and the AN/ALE-55 Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD).

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George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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Daveyb
Daveyb
3 years ago

I’d expect Britecloud to be fitted to our Wedgetails and Poseidons. This will provide the same level of protection perhaps even better. As they are fired away from the aircraft, so if the missile has a home on to jammer mode, the aircraft is still protected.

George Royce
George Royce
3 years ago
Reply to  Daveyb

Americans love to sell in bulk, sell cheap contracts which always balloon up, and it turns out, they always have inferior kit to Europeans. I think we should go with Leonardo as you mention.

pkcasimir
pkcasimir
3 years ago
Reply to  Daveyb

Have you seen the specs for this system? I’ll bet not. Yet somehow you know that it is inferior to Britecloud just because it’s American. How do you know that it won’t be fitted on the UK or Aussie or Norwegian or Japanese P-8s? Maybe it’s better and cheaper. I don’t know and you sure don’t.

DaveyB
DaveyB
3 years ago
Reply to  pkcasimir

At what point did I say the system is inferior to Britecloud just because it is American? The other thing to note from the image above, is that the decoy system uses up a hard point. The AN/ALE-55 Fibre Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD) has been around for the last ten years and is currently used on US F18s. Much like the Typhoon’s Preatorian DASS active towed decoy, it operates in the X to Ku bands (H to J) as published by BAe. These bands represent not only the majority of missile tracking radars but also some active RF missile seekers.… Read more »

Watcherzero
Watcherzero
3 years ago

Sudden urgent operational need for the demonstration of a Jammer and towed decoy package for the P8-Poseidon. I guess theyve suddenly realised that those operating out of Japan and Singapore might be facing a lot more air threat, Australia has also forward deployed its own P8’s to Japan.