Mini Accord

The Air Force has awarded Raytheon a two-year, $80.3 million contract to continue development of the radar-jamming variant of the company’s miniature air launched decoy. This variant, known as MALD-J, recently completed developmental flight testing and adds the jamming capability to the basic MALD platform, which is designed to serve as an airborne decoy that lures enemy air defenses away from friendly strike aircraft. “Like the baseline MALD, the J variant is modular and designed with growth in mind,” Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems’ Air Warfare Systems product line, said in the company’s release April 9. The company said it will conduct free-flight testing of MALD-J under the new contract and take the system’s development through a critical design review. All of this will set the stage for a decision to go into production that is expected in early 2011. MALD and MALD-J are considered an integral part of the US military’s future airborne electronic attack architecture. This Department of Defense announced the MALD-J contract March 31.