The Department of Defense (DoD) successfully conducted a series of free flight demonstrations of the Miniature Air Launched Decoy-X (MALD-X) this week, the Department said on Thursday.
The MALD-X is based on the MALD expendable vehicle originally designed for the Air Force. It is meant to be launched from a fighter jet before a battle and allows the military to gather data on the adversary once they start attacking the disposable decoy.
The MALD, weighing under 300 pounds and with a range of 500 nautical miles, is intended to confuse enemy air defenses by duplicating friendly aircraft flight profiles and radar signatures.
The MALD-X program is replacing the normal MALD payload with a Navy-developed module that includes an Air Force jammer, overall meant to be launched from Navy aircraft.
This newest test occurred on Aug 20 and 22 and was a collaborative project by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), Air Force MALD Program Office, and the Naval Air Warfare Center Point Mugu.
The tests featured a complex free flight demonstration of advanced electronic warfare techniques.
The Defense Department said MALD-X intends to build on MALD by demonstrating its operational effectiveness and the tactical advantage provided by large numbers of collaborative yet expendable platforms.
SCO Director Chris Shank said the cross-service technical collaboration between the Air Force and Navy allowed for the rapid development and demonstration of MALD-X, which is now being handed over to the Navy
“The MALD-X is handing over to the Navy to complete system development and transition to an operational capability. The superb cross-service technical teamwork is an exemplar for future innovative projects,” Shank said in a statement.
The department said MALD-X features modularity that lets the Navy “rapidly inject adaptive payloads and capabilities into as yet unknown future mission sets.”
MALD-X Program Manager Matthew O’Connell noted the system will give future warfighters “the ability to focus on the nature of the emerging threats rather than being encumbered by the burden associated with making a system interact with mission elements and mission supporting actions.”
DoD said the MALD-X program is pursuing “multiple enhancements” that would provide additional missions sets that will be demonstrated in 2019.
Last year the Air Force and Raytheon [RTN] validated the performance of an upgraded navigation system for the jammer variant, called the MALD-J. MALD-J adds radar-jamming capabilities on top of the preexisting decoy capabilities (Defense Daily, March 2, 2017).
The SCO first unveiled technology initiatives including the MALD-X in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in 2016 (Defense Daily, April 12, 2016).