Raytheon Awarded $80M US Navy Contract to Upgrade Super Hornet’s Electronic Warfare Capability

RTX business Raytheon has secured an $80 million U.S. Navy contract to develop an advanced electronic warfare prototype for the fighter aircraft F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the mainstay of the service’s carrier air wing. 

According to RTX, Raytheon’s prototyping will focus on modifying current electronic warfare solutions to include fewer components and integrate government-prescribed open architecture. In addition, the ADVEW prototype’s development will incorporate and closely parallel the Super Hornet’s existing, combat-tested radio frequency sensors and effectors, RTX said.

Bryan Rosselli, Raytheon’s president for advanced products and solutions, sees the prototyping as “paving the way for the next generation of electronic warfare,” saying that the company will provide a “one-box solution” refreshing the Super Hornet’s electronic warfare capability. 

The company disclosed that the prototyping is geared to replace the aircraft’s AN/ALQ-214 integrated defensive electronic countermeasure and AN/ALR-67(V)3 radar warning receiver.

The new solution’s development will seek to significantly improve the Super Hornets’ survivability against advanced threats and complex adversaries while maintaining the aircraft’s operational electronic warfare superiority, RTX added.

Raytheon will spend 36 months on the ADVEWs prototyping, including preliminary and critical design reviews and flight testing, with work performed mainly in Goleta, California.

Besides the ADVEW work, Raytheon has supplied its StormBreaker glide bombs to the Super Hornet, the first Navy aircraft armed with the smart weapon.