ROME — Aircraft and missiles heading into hostile territory will soon be relying on drone-mounted jammers flying ahead of them to bamboozle and block air defenses if a new British-built jammer takes off.
In sharp contrast to stand-off jammers, which are placed on large aircraft out of harm’s way and take out enemy radars from long distance, Leonardo is launching a new “stand-in” jammer it claims will be small enough to fit on a drone and cheap enough to be expendable.
The BriteStorm, which the firm is showing off at the AUSA convention in Washington, will weigh about 2.5kg and occupy the space of six Coke cans, including transmit and receive modules and antenna, Leonardo managers have said.
“It can be at the leading edge of any forces going into an enemy area,” said Michael Lea, VP Sales Electronic Warfare, Leonardo UK.
Designed to be sufficiently affordable to be expendable, the package will fit on large quad-copters or winged UAVs heading into the battlespace, Lea said.
“It is priced in a way it can be treated as an attritable asset so it wont break the bank or cause a major strategic issue if shot down,” he said.
After receiving an enemy radar signal, the system uses Leonardo’s Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) technology to digitally capture the signal, process it and respond by jamming the radar with electronic noise or spoofing it, which could involve creating dozens of “ghost” fighter jet signatures.
It is the same DRFM technology Leonardo has used on its BriteCloud - an expendable countermeasure designed to be released from aircraft to disrupt incoming missiles’ radar guidance systems.
The BriteStorm uses up to three transmit-receive modules, which cover low, mid, and high wavebands.
After development at Leonardo’s Luton facility in the UK, the system has been test flown by the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office.
Leonardo believes the BriteStorm is a step beyond the Raytheon MALD, or Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, an air launched, expendable jamming missile which has reportedly been used in Ukraine.
It also beats a stand-off jammer, said Lea. “A stand off jammer’s position in the sky is predictable whereas a stand-in jammer operates closer to threats, has more maneuverability and more axes on which it can confuse and suppress the threat,” he said.
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.
