Raytheon Company was awarded a U.S. Navy contract for the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy – Navy, as announced by the U.S. Department of Defense on Dec. 20, 2019. Systems integration has been announced as of July 6, 2012, by the Raytheon Corp. for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The process included a series of risk reduction activities and technology demonstrations. On 9 September 2015, Raytheon and the Naval Research Lab announced they had demonstrated a new rapid-replacement, modular architecture for the MALD-J for electronic warfare payloads. In July 2016, Raytheon received a contract to develop an evolution of the MALD-J called the MALD-X, incorporating an improved electronic warfare payload, the ability to fly at low-altitude, and an enhanced net-enabled data-link. The company hopes to transition the MALD-X into the MALD-N for the U.S. Navy.
Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona, is awarded a $112,267,649 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. This modification provides non-recurring engineering support throughout the engineering and manufacturing development phase as well as through payload integration and transition to production for the MALD-N. Work will be performed in Tucson (65%); and Goleta, California (35%), and is expected to be completed in September 2022. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. The ADM-160 MALD (Miniature Air-Launched Decoy) decoy is an expendable air-launched flight vehicle that looks like a U.S. or allied aircraft to enemy integrated air defense systems.
The ADM-160 MALD (Miniature Air-Launched Decoy) is a decoy missile developed by the United States. The MALD decoy is a flexible and modular system that has the potential to keep aviators and aircraft out of harm’s way. It’s an expendable air-launched flight vehicle that looks like a U.S. or allied aircraft to enemy integrated air defense systems, or IADS. The U.S. and its allies can confuse and deceive enemy IADS by sending a formation of MALD decoys into hostile airspace. Weighing less than 300 pounds, the weapon has a range of approximately 500 nautical miles (575 statute miles). After it is launched from its host aircraft, the MALD decoy flies a preprogrammed mission. In addition to protecting valuable aircraft, the weapon offers counter-air operations to neutralize air defense systems that pose a threat to U.S. and allied pilots.