L-3 Communications has announced that its AVISYS (L-3 AVISYS) subsidiary has been awarded a major contract that expands its capabilities to provide turnkey civil aircraft protection systems for three popular models of civil and VIP aircraft. L-3 AVISYS, a unit of the L-3 Integrated Systems Group, has installed or is in the process of installing its systems on the Airbus A340, and Boeing 737 and 747 aircraft.
The scope of work in this contract includes the potential for additional orders on other aircraft models.
The L-3 AVISYS systems protect aircraft from the threat of heat-seeking Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS). Additionally, the company's solutions include the Widebody Integrated Platform Protection System (WIPPS) and the second-generation Civil Aircraft Protection System (CAPS2), both based on mature, off-the-shelf self-protection and decoy-dispensing systems.
"The expansion of our self-protection solutions represents a great value for customers and is a market discriminator for L-3," said Ed Gloviak, vice president of Special Programs and Services for L-3 Communications Integrated Systems Group (L-3 IS). "The demand for this capability is expanding and we have seen excellent synergy with our VIP interiors completion capability because we find that the customers of our completion services are also typically interested in self-protection technology."
The systems are designed at the L-3 AVISYS facility in Austin, Texas, and can be installed at the L-3 IS aircraft integration center nearby in Waco, Texas (a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Designated Alteration Station), or at a customer-determined location.
The WIPPS and CAPS2 systems can be used for the duration of a flight from takeoff to landing, or only during the takeoff and landing segments, selectable by the customer. The mature technology of WIPPS and CAPS2 eliminates false alarms and inadvertent infrared decoy dispensing when operating in high-clutter urban areas. Its infrared decoy technology provides highly reliable and multi-threat and multi-launch protection at an affordable, low fly-away cost.
