Advanced threat protection for aircraft debuted by BAE Systems
NewsOctober 09, 2018
AUSA 2018--WASHINGTON. BAE Systems debuted its Smart D2 system, a next-generation threat-management technology named for its ability to dispense countermeasures and defend military aircraft.
The system, say BAE Systems officials, manages and deploys smart, expendable countermeasures – including multishot flares, active radio frequency (RF) decoys, and kinetic interceptors – that are intended to protect aircraft and aircrews from existing and emerging threats.
“The Smart D2 system combines smart inventory management with a database of proven countermeasure combinations,” said Paul Markwardt, vice president and general manager of Survivability, Targeting, and Sensing Solutions at BAE Systems. “The updated communications and inventory control in our Smart D2 system and its ability to work with current and future smart countermeasures provides aircrews with a more capable survivability solution that improves their ability to complete missions.”
Traditional threat warning and countermeasure systems use flares or chaff to confuse threats and hamper tracking ability, but they lack the communications, inventory management, and customizable response capabilities necessary to increase survivability against evolving future threats.
In contrast, the Smart D2 system provides two-way communication between the dispenser and aircraft using the NATO-standard Smart Stores Communication Interface, enabling aircrews to access critical inventory information and to program expendable, active decoys in real time. The system monitors the quantity, location, age, and carriage life of each expendable countermeasure on the aircraft and then deploys a custom mix of smart countermeasures to efficiently defeat specific threats.
Smart D2 -- designed to work with fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and to integrate with existing and future warning systems -- builds on the BAE Systems ALE-47 Airborne Countermeasures Dispenser System, a survivability system that is currently used on a wide variety of military aircraft worldwide.
