US Navy

An F/A-18E Super Hornet attached to the Sidewinders of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 86 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during a deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region. 

An F/A-18E Super Hornet attached to the Sidewinders of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 86 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during a deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region. 

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. -- The Navy has awarded contracts to BAE Systems and Raytheon in October for the development and demonstration a next-generation, dual band towed decoy. The contracts, valued at $36.7 million and $33 million respectively, will help determine the best fit to meet F/A-18E/F decoy requirements through a 27-month development and demonstration phase.

The Advanced Tactical Aircraft Protection Systems Program (PMA-272) based in Patuxent River will carry out testing and demonstrations of the next-generation dual band towed decoy capability on F/A-18E/F.

Decoys enable pilots to execute missions in highly contested airspace and protect the warfighter by luring threat missiles away from the aircraft.

These next-generation dual band decoys will build upon current decoy technologies to defeat the threats of tomorrow.

BAE Systems currently builds the ALE-55 Fiber-Optic Towed Decoy currently deployed on the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Raytheon currently builds the ALE-50 decoy system deployed on F/A-18E/F aircraft.