Article Posted on : - May 07, 2010

Raytheon's MALD

TUCSON, (BNS): Raytheon has received a $48.9 million contract to begin engineering, manufacturing and design (EMD) of Miniature Air Launched Decoy stand-in jammer variant for US Air Force.

The current MALD is a state-of-the-art, low-cost, decoy flight vehicle that is modular, air-launched and programmable. It weighs less than 300 pounds and has a range of approximately 500 nautical miles (about 575 statute miles).

The new MALD-J adds radar-jamming capability to the basic MALD platform without altering the decoy's outer mold line.

"During EMD, Raytheon will put MALD-J through an aggressive series of free-flight and captive-carry tests," said Scott Muse, Raytheon's MALD program director.

Prior to entering EMD, the MALD-J successfully completed all 27 test events, culminating in a free-flight test in December 2009. Raytheon recently completed a second free-flight test of the MALD-J April 27.