The Chilean Air Force has selected US contractor ITT to supply it with its Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (AIDEWS) for installation aboard the F-16 Block 50 combat aircraft it has ordered.
As such, AIDEWS will provide the new aircraft with an internally mounted, fully integrated radar warning and wide spectrum radio frequency countermeasures capability. Additionally, the architecture will provide control and management facilities for other onboard systems such as expendable, offboard countermeasures dispensers. ITT Avionics President Steve Gaffney characterises AIDEWS as representing an affordable, advanced technology fast-jet countermeasures solution that is derived from the company's scalable, modular family of electronic warfare modules. While not confirmed, this suggests that AIDEWS leverages technology from the AN/ALQ-211 Suite of Integrated Radio Frequency Countermeasures (SIRFC) that ITT is currently supplying into the US Special Forces helicopter community.
As with AIDEWS, SIRFC is designed to provide its host platform with advanced radar warning, situational awareness and an electronic countermeasures capability. At the time of going to press, AIDEWS deliveries to Chile were scheduled to begin during 2005 and will, according to Gaffney, provide ITT an entrŽe into a potential market involving some 500 fast-jet platforms around the world.