BAE Systems completes delivery of 2CAWS advanced missile warning systems to US Army

BAE Systems has successfully completed the delivery of 400 2-Color Advanced Warning Ststems (2CAWS) to the US Army as part of the Limited Interim Missile Warning System (LIMWS) programme, the company announced on 15 October 2024.

The advanced aircraft survivability systems have proven themselves in combat, defeating sophisticated missile threats and protecting US Army aviators and airborne soldiers, BAE Systems noted.

Under the LIMWS Quick Reaction Capability (QRC) contract, BAE Systems designed, developed, and delivered 2CAWS to protect US Army utility, heavy-lift and attack helicopters. The solution provides “highly effective, next-generation threat detection and warning capabilities that improve aircrews’ survivability”, BAE Systems stated. The systems use modern multi-spectral sensors, a high-speed digital backbone and machine learning algorithms to quickly and accurately detect threats in complex environments and then cue laser-based and expendable countermeasures.

“Protecting US Army helicopters is core to our mission,” Dave Harrold, vice president and general manager of Countermeasure & Electromagnetic Attack Solutions at BAE Systems, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “We’ve worked closely with Army Aviation to provide cutting-edge capabilities that protect crews from evolving threats, provide adversarial overmatch and enable warfighters to execute missions in contested battlespace,” Harrold added.

2CAWS-equipped aircraft have successfully flown thousands of hours in operational environments. The system builds on the proven missile warning capabilities of BAE Systems’ Common Missile Warning System (CMWS), which is currently fielded on thousands of US Army and international armed forces’ aircraft and has demonstrated its effectiveness and reliability over millions of flight hours.

BAE Systems says it is actively developing new capabilities, exploiting its “deep expertise in executing critical QRC programmes and fielding systems optimised for the size, weight, and power constraints and rigorous operating conditions of rotary-wing aircraft”, the company stated.

Work on the aircraft survivability technology is conducted at BAE Systems’ facilities in Huntsville, Alabama, and Merrimack, New Hampshire.