Forms Basis of New Eurofighter Capability

Hensoldt’s Kalaetron Attack EW system, capable of jamming even the latest Russian radars, will provide the basis for the Eurofighter’s new EW capabilities, the company announced on 26 April.

Part of the fully digital Kaletron family – used on the NH90 and for SIGINT tasking by multiple operators – Kalaetron Attack has recently proven its effectiveness in extensive ground tests against a variety of current threats. “The products of contemporary airborne electronic warfare are available in Germany,” says Celia Pelaz, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of the company’s Spectrum Dominance Division. “At Hensoldt, we are bundling these capabilities in order to develop – if necessary in cooperation with other companies – a solution under national sovereignty. By combining the latest technologies, we have managed to optimise the interference performance in a targeted manner. This makes ‘Kalaetron Attack’ scalable at any time for deployments as a self-protection system or the roles of an escort and stand-off jammer.”

Core system elements comprise a fully digitised, broadband sensor and effector and an electronically controllable jammer; the condensed structure of the electronic components is only made possible by metallic 3D printing. This has made it possible to configure the jammer for easy integration into pods in common use, and to scale it for naval and land applications. Realistic flight tests are next on the agenda, beginning this summer.

The next development step planned for summer 2022 is to install it in an aircraft in order to confirm the already outstanding laboratory results in realistic flight tests.