BAE Systems secures Navy rapid response pact

The Navy has awarded BAE Systems a $4 million rapid response contract to conduct a quick-turnaround demonstration of a P-8A Poseidon radio frequency countermeasure (RFCM) system.

“The ability to meet this unprecedented response time underscores our agility, focus on meeting customer needs, and our ultimate goal of protecting our warfighters,” Don Davidson, director of the Advanced Compact Electronic Warfare Solutions product line at BAE Systems, said. “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 pod-mounted RFCM system is a leading-edge, lightweight, high-power system adding a new self-protection capability to the P-8A Poseidon. Under the agreement, 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.

Small focus teams developed an innovative approach to designing and fabricating the system’s mechanical parts, which officials said resulted in the rapid response initiative.

The RFCM system consists of a small form factor jammer, a high-powered amplifier, and the AN/ALE-55 Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD), per authorities, who noted work on the contract would be performed at the BAE Systems facility in Nashua, N.H.