The U.S. Air Force reached a Milestone C decision on Raytheon's Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammer variant, authorizing Raytheon to begin Low Rate Initial Production of the system.

The Air Force also exercised a contract option and awarded Raytheon $5 million to convert Lot 4 MALD production of the baseline to the MALD-J variant.

"MALD-J will save the lives of aviators because commanders will be able to use MALD-J to conduct dangerous stand-in jamming missions instead of using manned aircraft to do the job," said Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems' Air Warfare Systems product line.

"The 125 Raytheon employees who make MALD and the hundreds of suppliers across the nation who support MALD can be proud of their contribution to the warfighter."

The Miniature Air Launched Decoy
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 aircrews and their aircraft 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.

MALD confuses enemy air defenses by duplicating friendly aircraft flight profiles, radar signatures.

MALD-J keeps all capabilities of MALD and adds jamming capabilities.

Raytheon will begin delivering MALD-J in 2012.