L3Harris receives Nulka decoy ADAP payloads award

The Nulka decoy is an expendable soft-kill countermeasure designed to seduce radar-guided anti-ship missiles in their terminal homing phase. (Australian Department of Defence)

L3Harris is to supply a series of next-generation electronic warfare (EW) payloads to equip the MK 234 Nulka active offboard decoy system used by the US and Australian navies.

Nulka is an expendable soft-kill countermeasure designed to seduce radar-guided anti-ship missiles in their terminal homing phase. Under a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) contract, potentially worth over USD120 million, the company will supply Advanced Decoy Architecture Program (ADAP) payloads to meet both US Navy (USN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) needs.

The original Nulka electronic decoy cartridge combines a hovering rocket payload carrier vehicle (produced by BAE Systems Australia) atop, which is a mounted broadband radio-frequency (RF) repeater payload (produced by Lockheed Martin) that radiates a large ship-like radar cross-section designed to seduce RF homing anti-ship missiles away from their intended targets. In USN service, the Nulka round is fired from the MK 53 decoy launching system.

ADAP is a payload upgrade effort instigated by the USN as a rapid deployment capability (RDC) to field an improved Nulka decoy to address more advanced anti-ship missile threats. More specifically, ADAP incorporates an advanced transmitter and improved signal processing to target specific threats that the current payload on Nulka decoy does not.

In September 2015 L3Harris was awarded a three-year contract to develop ADAP payloads, leveraging from earlier research and engineering development performed by the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) under the Office of Naval Research's (ONR's) so-called E-Nulka programme.