Successful flight test program for BOL countermeasures dispensing system on
RAAF F/A-18

The Saab BOL Countermeasures Dispensing System has been successfully flight-tested on the Royal Australian Air Force’s F/A-18 Hornet. The flight test program took place in March 2005 at Woomera Testing Range, South Australia.

SaabTech, a part of the Saab group, won the order for adaptation and flight trials of the BOL Countermeasure Dispensing System for the Royal Australian Air Force’s F/A-18 Hornet last year.  

The results of these tests, which included chaff and infrared dispensing, were described as ‘very successful’.

The BOL program is part of the Hornet Upgrade Program Phase 2.3 aimed at improving the aircraft’s Electronic Warfare Self Protection capability.

The successful trial is expected to lead to a production order to equip a number of F/A 18’s with BOL dispensers. The technology was displayed at the recent Australian Air Show in Avalon, Victoria, where it was enthusiastically received.

The BOL system uses wingtip vortices to distribute the chaff- and IR payload, avoiding the need for pyrotechnics and making it quicker, easier and safer to load.

The BOL system configuration for F/A 18’s dramatically increases the amount of countermeasure payload carried by each aircraft, significantly improving the chances of surviving missile threats.

Fast facts on the BOL system:

• The Saab BOL system is an advanced countermeasures dispensing system with proven superior performance.
• Each BOL holds 160 chaff/IR packages, five times more than conventional dispensers
• Located on aircraft wings to use vortices to greatly improve dispersion and rapid formation of protective ‘cloud’
• Rapid dispersion breaks radar locks and prevents Infrared seekers locking onto the aircraft.
• Saab BOL countermeasures dispenser system is currently in operational service on US Navy Tomcat, UK Harrier GR7 and Tornado, US Air Force/Air National Guard’s F-15 Eagle and Swedish JAS-39 Gripen. The system is currently in production for the EF-2000 Typhoon.

Saab is one of the world’s leading high-technology companies with its main operations focusing on defence, aviation, and space. The group covers a broad spectrum of competence and capability in systems integration.

19 April 2005