Lockheed Martin Demonstrates Aerial Electronic Warfare Payload for US Army

Bethesda, Maryland-based defense and aerospace company Lockheed Martin announced that it conducted a flight test of an electronic warfare pod for the U.S. Army.

The Multi-Function Electronic Warfare-Air Large system detects, locates, disrupts and degrades communications and radars, Lockheed said Wednesday.

The demonstration evaluated MFEW-AL’s ability to sense and influence various signals of interest at different ranges aboard one of the Army’s MC-12W fixed-wing planes. According to Lockheed, the system previously flew on an MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned system, showing that it is platform-agnostic and reconfigurable.

MFEW-AL’s architecture is based on the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards. The system will serve as the aerial component of Multi-Domain Operations‘ integrated EW system, the company added.

Deon Viergutz, Lockheed’s vice president of spectrum convergence, said that the successful test delivers “a more complete hardware and software configuration” advancing MFEW-AL toward deployment for EW warfighters.

Lockheed said it plans to conduct additional tests in the coming months to refine performance.