UAS spy and jamming payloads garner U.S. Army contracts
NewsNovember 30, 2023
WASHINGTON. The U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (PEO IEW&S) chose Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to develop spying and jamming payloads for uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) that can be catapulted from a moving vehicle or larger aircraft.
The PEO IEW&S named Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman as the winners of its other transaction agreement (OTA) for the initial phase of the Army's Launched Effects (LE) program. A statement from the service describes the LE program as investigating infrared and electronic warfare (EW) technology that “will provide standoff sense and effect capabilities for soldiers while keeping air and ground forces outside the range of adversary weapon systems” along with ways to support forces “entering and exiting mission areas.”
Launched effects are small systems or payloads that can be set off from military vehicles that augment troops' ability to use equipment to scout, target, jam, and neutralize opposing systems. The technology is thought to be a key subset of the Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) and Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) projects.
