ST. LOUIS, Aug. 31, 2005 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] accepted delivery on June 30 of the first Interference Cancellation (INCANS) engineering development unit for the U.S. Navy EA-18G airborne electronic attack (AEA) aircraft, currently under development.
"This is a key step in the development of the EA-18G," said Bob Feldmann, EA-18G program manager for Boeing. "We continue to work on a variety of systems, all of which will improve the AEA mission capability for our Navy customer and continue the F/A-18 tradition of meeting or exceeding our commitments on cost, schedule and technology."
The INCANS will allow the EA-18G to conduct voice communications with friendly forces while simultaneously jamming enemy communications, a significant improvement over the Navy's current EA-6B Prowler.
The INCANS engineering development unit, built by the EDO Corporation in Thousand Oaks, Calif., is undergoing initial laboratory testing at EDO facilities in California. The unit is undergoing integration testing with the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system at Naval Air Weapons Station Point Mugu, Calif. The INCANS will be installed in an F/A-18F aircraft for ground testing in the anechoic chamber at Naval Air Systems Command Patuxent River, Md., in mid-September.
Boeing will receive the first INCANS system development and demonstration (SDD) unit in June 2006. The INCANS SDD units will be used for environmental qualification and aircraft EA-1/EA-2 ground and flight testing. Aircraft EA-1 is scheduled to fly in September 2006, and the EA-18G is scheduled to begin replacing the EA-6B in 2009.