BAE Systems completes delivery of advanced missile warning systems

BAE Systems has completed the delivery of 400 2-Colour Advanced Warning Systems (2CAWS) to the U.S. Army as part of the Limited Interim Missile Warning System (LIMWS) program. The advanced aircraft survivability systems have proven themselves in combat, defeating sophisticated missile threats and protecting Army aviators and airborne soldiers.

Under the LIMWS Quick Reaction Capability (QRC) contract, BAE Systems designed, developed, and delivered 2CAWS to protect U.S. Army utility, heavy-lift, and attack helicopters. This solution provides highly effective, next-generation threat detection and warning capabilities that improve aircrews’ survivability. The systems use modern multi-spectral sensors, a high-speed digital backbone, and machine learning algorithms to quickly and accurately detect threats in complex environments and cue laser-based and expendable countermeasures.

“Protecting U.S. Army helicopters is core to our mission,” said Dave Harrold, vice president and general manager of Countermeasure & Electromagnetic Attack Solutions at BAE Systems. “We’ve worked closely with Army Aviation to provide cutting-edge capabilities that protect crews from evolving threats, provide adversarial overmatch, and enable warfighters to execute missions in contested battlespace.”

2CAWS-equipped aircraft have successfully flown thousands of hours in operational environments. The system builds on the proven missile warning capabilities of BAE Systems’ Common Missile Warning System (CMWS), which is currently fielded on thousands of U.S. Army and international armed forces’ aircraft and has demonstrated its effectiveness and reliability over millions of flight hours.

A leader in next-generation threat warning and countermeasure systems, BAE Systems is actively developing new capabilities. The company has deep expertise in executing critical QRC programs and fielding systems optimised for the size, weight, power constraints and rigorous operating conditions of rotary-wing aircraft.

Work on the aircraft survivability technology is conducted at the company’s facilities in Huntsville, Alabama and Merrimack, New Hampshire.