Airborne Systems Europe said that in July it received a $5.6 million, three-year contract with the New Zealand Ministry of Defense to fit Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) frigates with its FDS3 decoy systems.
The RNZN joins its counterparts in the U.S. Navy and U.K. Royal Navy in using the decoy systems.
The FDS3 corner reflector decoy offers a unique countermeasure protection against the most advanced and latest RF-seeking missiles, the company said in a statement.
The decoy systems will be fitted to the RNZN frigates as part of the ANZAC-class Frigate Systems Upgrade (FSU) project.
“The New Zealand Ministry of Defense has identified the capability that the FDS3 can provide against the proliferation of advanced missile threats that are emerging globally,” said Chris Rowe, president of Airborne Systems Europe.
“This contract further confirms the position of Airborne Systems as the world leader in naval corner reflector anti-missile decoy technology,” Rowe said. This New Zealand MoD contract follows the success of the $41.7 million U.S. Navy contract in 2013.
The decoy system is one of a number of electronic warfare decoy products being designed and manufactured by Airborne Systems’ U.K. facility, and represents a growing market, Rowe added.
At the July contract award ceremony, the The New Zealand MoD’s FSU Project Director Gary Collier said: “We are delighted to have negotiated this contract, and the FSU Project team is very much looking forward to working Airborne over the next few years. We’re proud to be the first customer outside of the U.K. and U.S for this generation of the system and believe the decoys provide an important adjunct to the overall anti-ship missile defense capability of our frigates and I know the RNZN is very pleased to be getting the FDS3 system.”
Peter Barrett, the Airborne Systems Business Development Manager for naval decoys, said: “The FSU program has allowed the NZ MoD to examine the range of naval anti-missile countermeasures in the marketplace, and which ones are most effective against the latest RF seeker technology. The selection of the Airborne Systems FDS3 corner reflector decoys recognizes the fact that with the emergence of more advanced threats, navies will have to re-examine their strategies for defeating RF missiles, as the more traditional countermeasures that have been utilized for many years will be increasingly ineffective against these latest missiles. The FDS3 system offers an effective solution against these advanced threats.”
In September 2013, Airborne Systems said it received a five-year $41.7 million contract from the U.S. Navy to supply a Navy variant of the FDS3 decoy system, the Mk59, for U.S. frigates. Other NATO nations also carry various versions of the decoy system on their vessels, the company said.
The decoy system is comprised of a deck-mounted launch tube preloaded with the decoy. When the fire button is pressed in the operations center, the process becomes fully automatic. The decoy is launched from the tube and fully inflates alongside the ship’s hull on the sea surface, before automatically being released and free floating past the stern. This entire deployment and inflation process takes very little time, making the FDS3 system effective against supersonic threats.