The U.S. Department of Defense has contracted L3Harris Technologies to repair of the AN/ALQ-184 electronic countermeasures system for the U.S. Air Force’s B-1B Lancer bombers.
The contract, announced Monday by the DoD, is worth more than $70 million and covers the repair of 154 national stock numbers applicable to the integrated AN/ALQ-161A electronic countermeasures system designed specifically for the B-1B bomber aircraft.
Work will be performed in Amityville, New York, and is expected to be completed June 5, 2025, according to a DoD press release.
The AN/ALQ-161A system is designed to detect and counter all modes of radar based weapon systems and also provides a tail warning function to detect and counter incoming missiles from the aft sector.
The company’s website said the system provides 360-degree simultaneous receive and jamming coverage against a large number of concurrent threats. The ECM system sorts threats by priority and reacts against them automatically while allowing for “man-in-the-loop” intervention.
The AN/ALQ-161A is a totally integrated radio frequency countermeasures system that is made up of over 108 Line-Replaceable Units, weighing over 5,000 lbs, consuming about 120 kW of power. The AN/ALQ-161A, which was initially delivered in the 1980’s, has been sustained through a series of OFP block cycle upgrades and hardware upgrades to incorporate modifications necessary to detect and counter the ever changing threat.