Potent as they may seem from afar, U.S. Navy ships are always vulnerable when faced with enemy missiles. That's why the country has invested heavily in recent times in increasing its vessels' defense capabilities. And at times that even means fitting specialized gear not on the ships themselves, but on the aircraft that accompanies them.
The Sikorsky-made MH-60 Seahawk helicopter is one such aircraft. Usually deployed on frigates, destroyers, and cruisers, it is tasked with conducting surface and anti-submarine warfare.
And it does both with incredible accuracy and effectiveness, thanks to the sensors and weapons it usually packs – anything from air-launched sonobuoys to Hellfire missiles. But all its capabilities would mean nothing if there was no ship to return to after a battle.
And this is where the Advanced Off-Board Electronic Warfare system comes in. Developed by Lockheed Martin, it is supposed to give the almost 40-year-old airborne platform the ability to detect and fight off anti-ship missiles heading for its floating base.
AOEW for short, the tech is still under development, and it will start working on the MH-60R and MH-60S variants of the Navy Seahawks sometime in 2024. We're talking about it now because it just passed a major test at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.
For the first time ever, the AOEW technology's ability to engage and defeat targets while being controlled by a Seahawk was put to the test, but not in the way you would imagine, with the helicopter flying freely in the sky.
The aircraft in question, an MH-60R, never left one of the Air Station's hangars, but was hoisted instead midway to the ceiling in a bid to simulate low-level flight. It may look like a strange way of doing things, but it's something that regularly happens in this business.
The AOEW is described by Lockheed Martin as "one of the most advanced, complex electronic warfare systems ever developed." It's a pod-based piece of tech electronic warfare missile defense system that should give Navy ships not only the capability to see threats faster and from afar, but also the ability to counter them.
It can be deployed either as a standalone solution or as part of a wider defense network that includes the Aegis and SEWIP (Surface Warfare Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block).
Although the system is already under a low-rate initial production contract, further tests are planned for the coming year, coming in the wake of a series of trials performed at the Lockheed Martin facility in Syracuse, New York.
Its maker is confident further evolutions of the AOEW might also allow it to be implemented on small ships and even aerial and surface drones. That's because it has been designed from the get-go to be upgradable and programmable.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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