Elbit awarded $50m to provide electronic warfare suite for Portuguese aircraft

Israeli firm Elbit Systems has been awarded a contract valued at approximately $50 million from the Portuguese Ministry of Defense to supply the Portuguese Air Force with a complete Electronic Warfare (EW) suite and Customer Logistics Support for the new KC-390 multi-mission aircraft.

The Embraer KC-390 is a medium-size, twin-engine jet-powered military transport aircraft in production by Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer.

In July 2019, the Portuguese Government confirmed the order of five Embraer KC-390 jet-powered transport aircraft, which will start to replace the C-130 aircraft from 2023.

The contract will be performed over a five-year period, advise Elbit.

Under the contract, Elbit Systems will supply the Portuguese Air Force’s KC-390 aircraft with a complete EW suite comprised of Radar and Laser Warning Systems, IR Missile Warning System, Countermeasures Dispensing System, a Directional IR Countermeasures (DIRCM) system and Active ECM (AECM) POD system.

Edgar Maimon, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Elbit Systems EW and SIGINT – Elisra, commented in a news release:

“The Portuguese Air Force is a long-standing strategic partner of Elbit Systems and we are proud of this contract award to provide enhanced survivability for their new fleet of KC-390 aircraft.”