Northrop Grumman's AN/ALQ-257 IVEWS. (Northrop Grumman)
US Air Force (USAF) programme leaders have given the green light to begin live flight tests of Northrop Grumman's AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS), after the system cleared service-led pre-flight system testing and integration efforts.
The pre-flight test and integration process, conducted at the air service's Joint Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic Sensors (J-PRIMES) facility at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, consisted of the IVEWS being “subjected to accurate representations of complex radio frequency (RF) spectrum threats”, according to USAF programme officials.
The system's completion of the pre-flight evaluation and system integration process at J-PRIMES was “the culmination of three years of extensive US government IVEWS system-level testing”, said USAF Colonel Michael Rigoni, director of F-16 International Electronic Warfare Systems.
“I am optimistic the upcoming operational assessment flight-test events will yield positive results and look forward to seeing this important capability continue to mature,” Col Rigoni said in an August service statement.
First operational flights of IVEWS-equipped F-16s had been slated for the end of the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2024. Despite the recent completion of the J-PRIMES process, it remains unclear when those live flight tests will take place.
Prior to the J-PRIMES process, the IVEWS underwent system evaluation during several Integration Demonstrations and Applications Lab (IDAL) events culminating in Laboratory Intelligent Validated Emulator (LIVE) closed-loop testing at Hill Air Force Base at the end of 2023. The system also underwent initial live flight tests aboard a F-16 surrogate aircraft during the air service's ‘Northern Lightening' military exercise in 2021, according to the USAF statement.
EW capability
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