EPAWSS Upgrade For Oldest Saudi F-15s Moves Forward

A major electronic warfare (EW) upgrade for the Royal Saudi Air Force fleet of Boeing F-15SA fighters has entered the early stages of the acquisition process within the U.S. Foreign Military Sales system.

The U.S. Air Force said it is seeking sources for the F-15 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS). The system is made by BAE Systems, but the Air Force notice is part of a mandatory process to inquire about potential competitive offers.

“The proposed system must be built upon the established baseline of F-15 Saudi Advanced (SA) Digital Electronic Warfare System (DEWS) and F-35 hardware/software architectures,” the Air Force says in a news release.

The reference to the Lockheed Martin F-35 architectures is tied to the origins of the EPAWSS. A decade ago, BAE created a family of EW suites for combat aircraft. This Barracuda family of products now has branches in the form of the BAE ASQ-239 suite for the F-35 and the F-15 EPAWSS. BAE also is one of seven named subsystem suppliers for the Northrop Grumman B-21.

EPAWSS provides spherical coverage around the fighter, alerting the pilot of radio frequency threats, then controlling the release of countermeasures, including jamming and releasing decoys or chaff.

In February, a Boeing executive at the World Defense Show near Riyadh told journalists that EPAWSS was among the upgrades the company was pursuing for the aging F-15SA fleet. A related upgrade also being discussed would equip the same aircraft with the Raytheon APG-82 active electronically scanned array, replacing the original APG-63V3 radar.