The ADM-160 MALD (Miniature Air-Launched Decoy) is a decoy missile developed by the United States.

Overview

DARPA MALD program

The Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) program was begun in 1995 by

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Ad ...

as an effort to develop a small, low cost decoy missile for use in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses. Teledyne Ryan (acquired by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military tec ...

in 1999) was granted a development contract for the ADM-160A in 1996, and the first test flight took place in 1999. The evaluation program was finished by 2001. The

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

planned to acquire several thousand of ADM-160A's, but in 2001 this was reduced to at most 150 for a System Development and Demonstration (SDD) program. In January 2002, the USAF cancelled the program because the drone didn't have enough range and endurance to meet the service's requirements or to perform other missions.Unmanned Aerial Vehicles 6.0 Decoys
The ADM-160A carries a Signature Augmentation Subsystem (SAS) which is composed of various active radar enhancers which cover a range of frequencies. The SAS can therefore simulate any aircraft, from the

B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air F ...

to the F-117 Nighthawk. The missile has folded wings to allow more compact carriage. On launch the wings unfold and a TJ-50

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, ...

propels the missile on a pre-determined course which is composed of up to 100 different waypoints. An inertial navigation system with GPS support keeps the MALD on course. Although pre-programmed before the aircraft leaves the ground, the course can be modified by the pilot at any point up to launch.

New USAF competition

In 2002, the USAF renewed its interest in an air-launched decoy and started a new industry-wide competition for a variant with greater endurance. The contract for a new MALD was awarded to Raytheon in Spring 2003. The Raytheon ADM-160B is similar in configuration to the ADM-160A, but has a trapezoidal fuselage cross section and is larger and heavier. It is powered by a Hamilton Sundstrand TJ-150, a more powerful variant of the TJ-50. The first ADM-160B was delivered in Spring 2009. In 2010 an "operationally significant quantity" of the drones were delivered to the Air Force. The USAF currently plans to procure about 1,500. In 2008 a contract for a jamming variant MALD-J was awarded to Raytheon. It made its first freefall test in 2009 and passed its critical design review in early 2010. The first MALD-J was delivered to the Air Force on September 6, 2012. On September 24, Raytheon started operational testing, achieving four successful flights out of four launches. In April 2015, the MALD-J completed operational testing, satisfying all requirements in 42 flight tests over the last two years. In November 2012, Raytheon completed ground verification tests for the MALD and MALD-J for integration onto the

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the Uni ...

UAV. Integration onto the aircraft was expected sometime in 2013, with the goal for an unmanned suppression of enemy air defenses capability. The company has also explored integration onto the smaller

MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ...

and U.S. Army MQ-1C Gray Eagle.Raytheon reveals new composite missile body for MALD decoy-jammer
- Flightglobal.com, 22 July 2015 In June 2013, Raytheon completed a four-year development program of the MALD, under budget. The MALD and MALD-J successfully completed all 30 engineering and operational flight tests, with each version completing 15. The Air Force has cleared the B-model MALD for export. In May 2014, Raytheon delivered the 1,000th MALD-J to the Air Force as part of the Lot 5 production contract. The MALD program has achieved a perfect 33-for-33 flight test success record over the past two years. In December 2014, a MALD-J was test-flown with a radio data-link to expand situational awareness and allow for in-flight targeting adjustments. While carrying out a jamming mission, the MALD-J was able to send situation awareness data to the EW Battle Manager, which used the information to adjust its mission while in-flight. In July 2015, Raytheon revealed it had developed a new composite missile body for the MALD-J in partnership with Fokker Aerostructures and Italian race car manufacturer Dallara that is 25 percent cheaper to produce; Fokker adapted robotics to wind the carbon fiber fuselage instead of the conventional manual process and Dallara applied its lightweight structural technologies to airframe accessories such as air inlets and covers. The new cheaper airframe design was first incorporated into Lot 7 production models in 2015, from the contract awarded in June 2014.

US Navy

The Naval Surface Warfare Center will place an order for the MALD-J.Trimble, Stephen
"Raytheon jammer attracts US Navy interest as roles expand."
''Flight International'', 27 May 2011. Systems integration has been announced as of July 6, 2012, by the Raytheon Corp. for the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The process included a series of risk reduction activities and technology demonstrations.Raytheon Corp
"Raytheon and US Navy begin MALD-J Super Hornet integration"
'Press Release', 6, July 2012. On 9 September 2015, Raytheon and the

Naval Research Lab The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

announced they had demonstrated a new rapid-replacement, modular architecture for the MALD-J for

electronic warfare Electronic warfare (EW) is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM spectrum) or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponen ...

payloads. Four payloads, each customized for a specific mission and threat, were demonstrated in 12 captive carry flights; the payloads could be swapped out of a captive carry vehicle in less than one minute. In July 2016, Raytheon received a contract to develop an evolution of the MALD-J called the MALD-X, incorporating an improved electronic warfare payload, the ability to fly at low-altitude, and an enhanced net-enabled data-link. The company hopes to transition the MALD-X into the MALD-N for the U.S. Navy.

British interest

The British

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

expressed interest on the MALD-V platform at the Paris Airshow in 2009.

Variants

; : Original decoy version developed by Teledyne Ryan (acquired by

) and funded by DARPA. It uses GPS-aided navigation system, and can fly missions with up to 256 predefined waypoints. The mission profile is preprogrammed, but can be redefined by the pilot of the launching aircraft until immediately before launch. ; : Decoy version developed by Raytheon with longer endurance. In use by the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

. ; "MALD-J" : Radar jammer variant of ADM-160B by Raytheon. This variant of the MALD decoy will be able to operate in both decoy and jammer modes. The decoy and jammer configurations are key enablers supporting the Air Force Global Strike, Global Response, Space and C4ISR, and the Air and Space Expeditionary Force Concepts of Operations. MALD-J will provide stand-in jamming capability for the Airborne Electronic Attack Systems of Systems. It will be launched against a preplanned target and jam specific radars in a stand-in role to degrade or deny the IADS detection of friendly aircraft or munitions. Delivery to the US Armed Forces is to begin in 2012. That year, the Air Force ended procurement of the ADM-160B and will only procure MALD-J versions.

Experimental variants

; MALI : The () is an armed version of the ADM-160A which could be used against cruise missiles. It has a more powerful engine and a more

aerodynamic Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

shape for supersonic flight, and can be updated in mid flight via a command link to aircraft such as the E-3 Sentry AWACS. It completed its development program in 2002. ; : Modular payload version that provides space for mission specific payloads of surveillance gear, radio/radar/infrared jammers or other equipment. This may provide the go-forward architecture, and give the option of turning MALD into a UAV, or even a combination killer-UAV/decoy. If equipped with sensor payloads, the MALD may be modified to be recovered so as not to lose valuable payloads after each flight. One payload option could be a

thermobaric A thermobaric weapon, also called an aerosol bomb, a vacuum bomb or a fuel air explosive (FAE), is a type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion. The fuel–air explosive is one of the b ...

warhead, essentially turning the MALD into a

cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhea ...

Launch platforms

*Current: **

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful ...

*Future and potential: ** F/A-18 Super Hornet **

C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally des ...

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of tw ...

V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...

** AV-8B Harrier II **

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonar ...

** A-10C Warthog **

** MQ-1C Gray Eagle **

** Gripen E

Specifications (Northrop Grumman ADM-160A)

*''Length'' : 2.38 m (7 ft 10 in) *''Wingspan'' : 0.65 m (2 ft 2 in) *''Diameter'' : 15 cm (6 in) *''Weight'' : 45 kg (100 lb) *''Speed'' : Mach 0.8 *''Ceiling'' : Over 9,000 m (30,000 ft) *''Range'' : Over 460 km (285 mi) *''Endurance'' : Over 20 min *''Propulsion'' : Hamilton Sundstrand TJ-50 turbojet; 220 N (50 lbf) thrust *''Unit cost'' : US$30,000

Specifications (Raytheon ADM-160B)

*''Length'' : 2.84 m (9 ft 7 in) *''Wingspan'' : 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in) fully extended *''Weight'' : 115 kg (250 lb) *''Speed'' : Mach 0.91 *''Ceiling'' : Over 12,200 m (40,000 ft) *''Range'' : Approximately 920 km (575 mi) with ability to loiter over target *''Endurance'' : Over 45 min at altitude *''Propulsion'' : Hamilton Sundstrand TJ-150 turbojet *''Unit cost'' : US$120,000 (initial), US$322,000 (as of 2015)Stopping Mobile Missiles: Top Picks For Offset Strategy:
- Breakingdefense.com, 23 January 2015

References

This article contains material that originally came from the web articl
''Unmanned Aerial Vehicles''
by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain. {{US missiles Decoy missiles of the United States DARPA projects Military equipment introduced in the 2010s