Slovakia's first F-16 departs the factory on a delivery flight. Slovakian F-16s are to be equipped with the Viper Shield, which has just entered production. (Lockheed Martin)
The L3Harris AN/ALQ-254(V)1 Viper Shield electronic warfare (EW) system has entered production, L3Harris said on 17 September at the Air & Space Forces Association's (AFA's) Air, Space, and Cyber conference at National Harbor, Maryland. Viper Shield is to equip newbuild Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70/72s destined for international customers.
The company is building 166 Viper Shield systems to equip newbuild F-16s from six countries, the company said. Although L3Harris declined to disclose its customers, US Department of State Foreign Military Sales (FMS) notifications indicate that those customers include Bahrain, Bulgaria, Morocco, Slovakia, and Taiwan; although Greece and Jordan have both purchased F-16 Block 70/72s, neither has disclosed whether Viper Shield is included in their forthcoming aircraft.
Although the system has been flight tested in a podded form, it has yet to fly internally integrated into the F-16. Flight-testing is expected to begin later in 2024, said Jennifer Lewis, president of Airborne Combat Systems at L3Harris.
“We're just awaiting the US government to provide us with the aircraft that we will put those production-configured components into … and demonstrate it,” said Robert Raymond, air force programme lead for EW Technology Development at L3Harris.
The first delivery to a customer is scheduled for 2025, with operational flights in 2026.
Viper Shield is an internal EW system capable of detecting and jamming EW threats, integrated with the F-16 Block 70/72's APG-83 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The EW system is software-defined such that the hardware provides a physical basis for the software to detect threats and determine an appropriate EW countermeasure.
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