WASHINGTON — BAE Systems received a $4 million contract from the Navy for a “quick-turnaround” demonstration of a new radio frequency countermeasure system for the P-8A Poseidon aircraft.

The system will be a lightweight pod mounted to the aircraft that will add a new self-protection capability to the Poseidon, the company said in a Jan. 5 announcement.

The system consists of a small form factor jammer, a high-powered amplifier and the AN/ALE-55 Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy, BAE said. It jams signals to guide missiles away from the aircraft to the towed decoy.

“The ability to meet this unprecedented response time underscores our agility, focus on meeting customer needs, and our ultimate goal of protecting our war fighters,” 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.”

BAE said it will design, build, integrate and ship the system in around five months followed by two months of flight testing on the Poseidon, beginning in early 2021. This rapid timeline stems from collaboration of small focus teams that developed an approach to the system’s mechanical parts, the company said.

About Mark Pomerleau

Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.

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