An EPAWSS-equipped F-15E in San Antonio, Texas, where Boeing retrofits the Strike Eagle. An updated version of EPAWSS is in the works, although not under USAF contract at this stage. (Boeing)
BAE Systems is working on a new version of its AN/ALQ-250 Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS), intended to equip US Air Force (USAF) Boeing F-15EXs, BAE's director for Tactical Aircraft Electronic Warfare Lindsay Gallagher told Janes on 4 March at the 2025 Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) Warfare Symposium.
The new version, called EPAWSSv2, which features an increase in the system's processing power, has been under development for two years, Gallagher said. It is in the engineering, manufacturing, and development (EMD) phase, with critical design review β the last such review before prototype production β expected in April.
The original EPAWSS, now being fielded on newbuild F-15EXs and retrofitted aboard F-15E Strike Eagles, can no longer be built due to diminishing manufacturing sources, Gallagher said. Several components of EPAWSS β which Gallagher declined to specify β are no longer being constructed, and BAE took the opportunity to upgrade the system's design.
βWe were at a point where we couldn't build the current version, and so we had to upgrade. And in the process, by doing that, we were able to take some of the newer technologies and upgrade the capability of the system as well at the same time,β Gallagher said.
EPAWSSv2 is not under contract, and Gallagher deferred questions about integration with the F-15 to Boeing.
EPAWSS, which entered service in 2023, replaced the F-15's Tactical Electronic Warfare Suite, which dates from the 1980s. The system is interoperable with the F-15's AN/APG-82 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and both chaff and flares countermeasure systems.
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