BAE Systems wins $23.5 million ‘friend or foe’ contract

BAE Systems PLC’s Greenlawn unit has won a $23.5 million contract to make as many as 142 interrogator units and as many as 195 upgrade kits for “identification friend or foe” systems for F/A-18 jets, the company announced Monday.

The systems are designed to ensure that U.S. aircraft and allied forces are not confused with hostile combatants.

BAE Systems’ information and electronic systems integration unit at Greenlawn, with 650 employees, will perform 84 percent of the work on the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, valued at $19.7 million. The remainder of the work will be allocated to Austin, Texas.

The contract with the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland, is expected to be completed in December 2019.

BAE has more than 75 years producing identification friend or foe systems, the company said in a statement.

The F/A-18 is a twin-engine jet fighter that can take off from, and land on, an aircraft carrier.

BAE is a multinational aerospace company based in Farnborough, United Kingdom.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.