[Adimondin]

The U.S. Navy and Raytheon have begun integrating the Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer variant into F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fleet. MALD is a state-of-the-art, low-cost flight vehicle that is modular, air-launched and programmable. It weighs less than 300 pounds and has a range of approximately 500 nautical miles (about 575 statute miles). MALD protects aircraft and their crews by duplicating the combat flight profiles and signatures of U.S. and allied aircraft. The MALD-J adds radar-jamming capability to the basic MALD platform.

Raytheon is working with the U.S. Navy to make sure the weapon is capable of withstanding the rigors of taking off and landing on aircraft carriers.