An RTX business has booked an $80 million contract to prototype an electronic warfare tool for the U.S. Navy.
Over the award’s three-year period, Raytheon will develop and test the consolidated Advanced Electronic Warfare, or ADVEW, system for the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft, the company announced from Goleta, California on Tuesday.
“These advancements are paving the way for the next generation of electronic warfare,” said Bryan Rosselli, president of advanced products and solutions at Raytheon.
ADVEW is designed to condense existing electronic warfare systems into fewer components and build an open architecture to provide modernization and performance enhancement. During the development process, Raytheon intends to align and integrate ADVEW with other radio frequency sensors and effectors used by the Super Hornet.
The new system is set to supplant the aircraft’s current AN/ALQ-214 integrated defensive electronic countermeasure and AN/ALR-67(V)3 radar receiver.
Rosselli said the one-box technology “will deliver a generational refresh to the electronic warfare capability for the lifetime of the Super Hornet.”
The prototype phase will include preliminary design review, critical design review and flight testing. A majority of these activities will occur in Goleta, California.
This contract follows RTX’s earlier support for the Navy’s efforts to upgrade the Super Hornet. Last month, the company’s StormBreaker precision-guided glide bomb was fielded on the aircraft, which represents the first Navy aircraft cleared to host the weapon system.
RTX has recently won multiple other Navy awards, including a $96.3 million contract modification for sensor network design and engineering and a $20.8 million award to construct and demonstrate two wideband passive sensor systems as part of the service branch’s Birdseye Yonder initiative.