NAVAIR is planning to amass Energetic Expendable Decoys with a 2″x1″x8″ type issue from Leonardo UK, hinting on the system being the BriteCloud 218 countermeasure.
The U.S. Naval Air Programs Command (NAVAIR) will quickly negotiate and award a contract to Leonardo UK for as much as 6,000 Energetic Expendable Decoy (AED) to equip the U.S. Navy’s F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets. The event, first reported by Breaking Protection, was revealed in a presolicitation discover revealed in June 2024.
Leonardo UK has been described because the “solely contractor who possesses the manufacturing expertise, infrastructure, capability, and platform {qualifications} to finish all necessities” and ship the AEDs. The discover explains that the contract features a base yr, Fiscal 12 months 2027, in addition to as much as 4 possibility years by FY2031.
AEDs produce highly effective radio frequency emissions to deceive, jam, overwhelm and draw away incoming anti-air missiles from the plane. Opposite to towed decoys at present employed on many plane, together with the F-35 and F/A-18, these decoys are deployed like customary chaff and flares cartridges, drawing fireplace additional away from the plane.
A complete of three,000 to six,000 AEDs will likely be procured per yr, along with “spare impulse cartridges, associated help gear and repairs, and discipline service consultant help.” The brand new decoys will equip the F-35, F/A-18 and different unspecified U.S. Authorities platforms.
Confirmed for operational use – @DeptofDefense’s Overseas Comparative Testing programme has issued #Britecloud with a Fielding Advice for the US #F16 Preventing Falcon. Find out about world’s 1st Digital Radio Frequency Reminiscence #DRFM @Leonardo_UK #DSEIJapan pic.twitter.com/LxhFwjuq0E
— Leonardo (@Leonardo_live) March 15, 2023
The contract presolicitation follows an April 2025 Sources Sought discover that scoured distributors for the AEDs. That discover talked about that the AEDs are supposed to offer further Radio Frequency Countermeasure (RFCM) functionality to the plane, including that the F-35 has already “examined and built-in AED functionality, which resulted in a fielding determination,” whereas the choice for the F/A-18, probably referring to each the F/A-18-E/F Tremendous Hornet and EA-18G Growler, will likely be taken in 2027.
Whereas the discover doesn’t specify the identify of the AED which will likely be offered by Leonardo, the point out of this particularly being Leonardo UK and the Place of Efficiency being Luton strongly means that the AED being sought is the BriteCloud 218 decoy. Moreover, the 2x1x8 inch type issue additional factors to the BriteCloud 218 decoy, which was already examined by the U.S. Air Power in 2022 – receiving the designation AN/ALQ-260(V)1 – and eyed to equip the U.S. Navy’s F-35s in June 2024.
System and vendor necessities
As beforehand talked about, the AEDs are supposed to offer further Radio Frequency Countermeasure (RFCM) functionality to the plane, complementing those already fielded.
As an example, the F-35 is supplied with the BAE Programs ASQ-239 onboard self-protection system, which additionally consists of the ALE-70 fiber-optic towed decoy. Equipping the F-35 with BriteCloud considerably enhances the plane’s survivability, because the stealth jet is just not geared up with chaffs, whereas it is ready to carry solely a restricted variety of ALE-70 decoys.
The April 2025 Sources Sought discover lists the factors that the contractor, now recognized as Leonardo, should meet:
2″ x 1″ x 8″ type issue
Mission load programmable by the Authorities
Demonstrated RFCM efficiency functionality evaluated at TRL-9, outlined as: “Precise system confirmed by profitable mission operations”
Evaluated at MRL-9, outlined as: “Demonstrated Low-Charge Manufacturing functionality in place to start Full-Charge manufacturing”
Should be certified to be used on F-35 and prepared for speedy manufacturing
Should be certified and prepared to be used on F-18 and different USG platforms following a manufacturing determination
These necessities match the outline of BriteCloud 218, a smaller variant of the 55 mm cylindrical BriteCloud spherical which may match the two”x1”x8” U.S.-made chaff/flare dispensers, like the usual AN/ALE-47 countermeasure dispensers put in on many U.S. plane. The U.S. Air Nationwide Guard has issued a “fielding suggestion” for the decoy after the profitable completion of the Overseas Comparative Testing on the service’s F-16 Preventing Falcon fighter jets in 2022.
The discover additionally mentions that the contract award is predicted in November 2026, with deliveries set to begin “as early as 4 months, however no later than ten months after contract award.” The identical supply schedule applies to the choice years, and all AEDs should be “delivered inside 12 months of the primary supply in every interval.”
F-35 testing
The testing of the AED on the F-35 Lightning II is just not a novelty, as NAVAIR already talked about in 2024 that F-35 plane have examined and built-in AED functionality. This resulted in a fielding determination, though no different particulars have been disclosed, and a primary contract alternative discover for the requirement to obtain AEDs was launched in June 2024.
Aviation Week reported that in 2023 the F-35 Joint Program Workplace acquired a Saab BOL countermeasure dispenser, which may additionally make use of BriteCloud, to make use of in a flight demonstration. The BOL is put in externally and already in service with the Royal Australian Air Power’s F/A-18 Hornet, U.S. Air Power’s F-15 Eagle, Eurofighter Hurricane and the Saab Gripen.
It’s unclear how the system could be put in on the F-35, though the one logical answer could be to put in it behind the LAU-151/A Exterior Rail Launcher used to hold the AIM-9X Sidewinder. This answer could be much like the one used for the F-15, the place the BOL was put in behind the LAU-128 rails.
One other point out of the testing was discovered within the March 2025 press launch on the Protection Visible Data Distribution Service (DVIDS) concerning the change of command of Provider Air Wing (CVW) 2. This was listed among the many developments beneath the management of outgoing CVW 2 commander Capt. Timothy Myers, which additionally included the F-35’s first operational GBU-54 employment, the fleet’s first Lengthy Vary Anti-Ship Missile software program validation check on each the Block II and Block III variants of the F/A-18E/F and routine AIM-174B operations throughout RIMPAC 2024.
The AED was recognized by its ALQ-260 designation, with press launch mentioning it was expended for the primary time by an F-35 squadron. The squadron was not recognized by the service, nonetheless CVW 2 has just one squadron which operates the F-35C, Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 97 “Warhawks.”
BriteCloud 218
In our 2021 exhaustive function on the BriteCloud, we reported that the system is a battery powered, self-contained cartridge providing off-board jamming – therefore the time period “energetic” – and dropped like standard chaffs and flares. The system creates a big distance between the plane and itself, so the missile and its shrapnel miss fully the plane.
In accordance with Leonardo, BriteCloud can defeat nearly all of RF-guided surface-to-air and air-to-air menace programs, together with those that depend on the “home-on-jam” steering (when the missile targets the jamming sign, harmful particularly for plane geared up solely with an inner or podded jammer). After BriteCloud is ejected, it begins to seek for precedence threats, amassing the incoming radar pulses and cross-referencing them in opposition to a pre-programmed menace library.
Upon discovering a match, BriteCloud’s on-board pc applies its superior algorithms to simulate a “false goal” so correct that the menace system can’t detect the deception and distinguish it from the actual plane. This occurs as a result of, as talked about by Leonardo, the decoy is in a position present each Doppler and vary obscuration with vary and velocity “gates” that confuse the ECCM programs.
BriteCloud is what is named a “second technology” expendable energetic decoy, which differs from the primary technology decoys, generically known as additionally towed decoys, developed in the direction of the tip of the Chilly Battle and reliant on a cable that connects them to the plane to allow them to maintain the required distance and in addition obtain information and energy for the jamming sign.
BriteCloud is developed by Leonardo’s services in Luton (UK). Following the profitable exams of the 55 mm BriteCloud spherical, known as BriteCloud 55, Leonardo developed a good smaller variant known as BriteCloud 218 which may match the two”x1”x8” US-made chaff/flare dispensers.
Leonardo says BriteCloud requires minimal platform integration because it simply must be loaded within the chaff/flare dispensers. Due to this, the system requires little to no integration efforts with the F-35 since it could actually match inside its present chaff dispensers, making it a kind of plug-and-play functionality.
Service and testing historical past
BriteCloud is already in service with the Royal Air Power (RAF), which used it on the Twister GR4 after trials on the jet in 2014 and 2015, the latter in america. That check noticed “intensive modelling and simulation of the assorted engagement eventualities was carried out utilizing Tactical Engagement Simulation Software program (TESS) produced by Leonardo,” Leonardo defined. “TESS was utilised earlier than, throughout and after the trials, with glorious correlation between the simulated and actual world information.”
The USAF has examined Leonardo’s #BriteCloud 218 DRFM Expendable Energetic Decoy (EAD) on F-16Cs. This suits the usual 2x1x8 CMD just like the AN/ALE-47. BriteCloud could substitute or complement the AN/ALE-50 “Little Buddy” Towed Decoy System at present utilized by the Vipers in opposition to AAM/SAMs pic.twitter.com/XvOB7D3Xfa
— Sameer Joshi (@joe_sameer) September 4, 2022
Swedish protection main Saab in 2015 carried out trials with BriteCloud 55s from a Gripen E, efficiently deploying the AED from the fighter. In September 2016 the RAF then bought a major variety of the decoys, a part of a second stage to increase analysis of BriteCloud’s protecting impact with the RAF’s fleet of Twister jets, and develop a ‘idea of operations’ (CONOPS).
The service cleared BriteCloud for service with the Tornados in 2018. This was adopted by Leonardo being contracted to help a sequence of trials to combine the BriteCloud 55 with the service’s Hurricane FGR4s.
The U.S. Air Nationwide Guard has additionally issued a ‘fielding suggestion’ for BriteCloud 218 as a part of a Overseas Comparative Testing (FCT) program involving U.S. F-16 Preventing Falcon fighter jets. The service subsequently designated BriteCloud 218 as AN/ALQ-260(V)1.
