Military

Sale Launches EW Program For Legacy F-16s

By Tish Drake | July 21, 2010
Send Feedback

ITT Electronic Systems has received the first international order for its AN/ALQ-211(V) 9 Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (AIDEWS) through a Foreign Military Sale (FMS).

Andrew J. Dunn, ITT Electronic Systems vice president of International Business Development, said the FMS sale to an unnamed country launches the company’s electronic warfare program for legacy F-16s. The AIDEWS system is contained in a pod retrofitted to the aircraft.

Dunn, interviewed at the Farnborough Airshow, said the order represents a "launch quantity" of about a dozen systems.

ITT Electronic Systems, Clifton, N.J. already is in full-rate production of the AIDEWS system for F-16s destined for Pakistan and Turkey through FMS. The company envisions a retrofit market of potentially hundreds of systems from country’s such as Chile, Jordan, Romania and Bulgaria acquiring used F-16s.

Dunn said there have been only "discussions" with the U.S. Air Force aimed at replacing the legacy Raytheon and Northrop Grumman EW systems on American F-16s.

Receive the latest avionics news right to your inbox