Raytheon has delivered about 40 Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammers to the Air Force since the beginning of September, Joe Staton, the company’s MALD growth manager, told the Daily Report. The MALD-J is the second variant of MALD, following the baseline decoy. MALD-J adds a radar-jamming capability to the baseline decoy, which is designed to duplicate the combat flight profiles of US and allied aircraft to fool enemy air defenses and help protect aircrews from anti-aircraft missiles. The Air Force intends to buy about 3,000 of the decoys and jammers. So far, Raytheon has been contracted to deliver about 600, said Staton in a Sept. 10 interview. Click here to read the full report.
The Pentagon announced new long-term agreements with four defense companies May 13 to develop and produce large numbers of low-cost cruise missiles. And while the effort will focus mostly on the Army to start, it pairs with Air Force efforts to find more affordable munitions.