Air Force exercises $76 million option on Raytheon aerial decoy jammer contract
NewsNovember 16, 2016
TUCSON, Ariz. Raytheon Missile Systems has secured a contract from the U.S. Air Force to continue production of vehicles and support equipment for the Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer (MALD-J), a low-cost, air-launched programmable craft that can deceive opponents' radars and air-defense systems by duplicating all combat flight profiles and aircraft radar signatures.
The unmanned MALD-J navigates and operates much closer than conventional electronic warfare (EW) to the target radar when jamming the electronics, allowing aviators and aircraft to stay out of harm's way. Work related to this deal -- valued at $76.1 million -- is expected to be completed by June 30, 2020.