In the runup to DEFEA 2025, Robert Raymond, Director of Business Development, Electronic Warfare, and Space and Airborne Systems at L3Harris Technologies, spoke to Business Partners about the company’s advanced electronic warfare systems and their role in overcoming threats in an increasingly challenging and complex battlespace.
Tell us a bit about Viper Shield and its role in enhancing F-16 electronic warfare capabilities.
Viper Shield is an all-digital, fully integrated radar warning receiver and electronic countermeasure system designed for the Block 70/72 F-16V, and compatible with all previous F-16 blocks. The system completed its first flight in January in a single-seat Block 70 F-16 operated by the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The virtual electronic armor leverages state-of-the-art, software-defined technology and a superior instantaneous bandwidth to detect the most challenging threats and deliver the advanced digital radio frequency memory capabilities needed to counter modern integrated air defense systems. Viper Shield provides F-16 pilots with unprecedented situational awareness and self-protection to achieve mission success. It is architected for future capability growth and will be delivered to customers starting in late 2025.
How does DiSCO leverage AI and machine learning to improve electronic warfare operations?
Distributed Spectrum Collaboration and Operations (DiSCO) is a cloud-connected electronic warfare (EW) operating system connecting tactical sensors and shooters to powerful resources to enable rapid reprogramming, shared situational awareness, and electromagnetic battle management to synchronize effects across distributed platforms. DiSCO helps warfighters rapidly identify and counter new threats at scale using advanced AI/ML tools, edge processing, and cloud resources. It’s the connective tissue between tactical edge EW sensors and shooters, edge nodes, and cross-domain cloud resources to deliver distributed non-kinetic effects across the mesh network of current and future platforms. In the near term, DiSCO will deliver the tools and architecture needed to drastically reduce the time from unknown signal detection to signal identification and optimized jamming effects—from months to minutes—enhancing survivability and ensuring freedom of maneuver in complex operating environments.
What key challenges do military forces face in electronic warfare today?
Previously, one of the biggest challenges was keeping electronic warfare top-of-mind rather than considering it only after war erupts. Today, with enemies (peer, near-peer, non-state actors) utilizing an evolving set of more capable and compact weapons to engage and attack key targets, spectrum dominance is a higher priority. To ensure dominance in the future, government and industry must work together to significantly accelerate investments in building out electromagnetic spectrum operations capabilities. The US Air Force has made data the centerpiece of its innovation agenda, with plans to leverage AI, and robust, cloud-to-edge networks to dramatically shorten the time it takes to deliver mission-critical data to warfighters as part of an improved EW integrated reprogramming process. At L3Harris we’re doing our part by providing critical capabilities such as Viper Shield and introducing Distributed Spectrum Collaboration and Operations (DiSCO) so warfighters can overcome rapidly evolving threats in an increasingly challenging battlespace.
How is L3Harris preparing for the future of electronic warfare?
L3Harris is proud to have more than 60 years of providing electronic warfare capabilities to global customers, helping them operate successfully in an evolving electromagnetic spectrum. We’re doing our part to modernize the electromagnetic spectrum operations data architecture and taking full advantage of widely employed commercial technologies today to give warfighters a critical edge to outsmart and outmaneuver adversaries.