BAE Systems secures LRIP deal for USAF EW programme

US defence industry firm BAE Systems has been contracted by Boeing to support the company’s effort to develop low-rate initial production (LRIP) variants of a new defensive electronic warfare (EW) suite for the US Air Force’s fleet of F-15 jet fighters.

Boeing programme officials inked a USD58 million development deal with BAE Systems to support LRIP efforts for the F-15 Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS) project. “BAE Systems is delivering incremental updates to the EPAWSS flight software with new geolocation and threat identification capabilities. As a result, system performance continues to improve in ground [and] flight test and in dense signal environments in hardware-in-the-loop (HiTL) tests at the US Air Force’s Integrated Demonstrations and Applications Laboratory,” said a BAE Systems 2 March statement announcing the deal.

An EPAWSS-equipped F-15 Eagle making its initial flight in April 2019. (Boeing )

Designed to allow air force pilots to monitor, jam, and evade EW threats through a digital suite of countermeasure systems, multispectral sensor platforms, and integrated radar – linked by artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled microelectronic signal processing algorithms – the EPAWSS “will significantly improve the survivability and utility of the F-15, and will be a great complement to what is already a very capable and lethal aircraft”, said Lieutenant Colonel Dan Carroll, the F-15 EPAWSS programme manager.

The announcement of the 2 March deal with BAE Systems comes just over three months after Boeing secured the LRIP production deal with the air force for EPAWSS, which will replace the legacy Tactical Electronic Warfare Suite (TEWS) currently deployed aboard the air service’s fleet of F-15E Strike Eagles.