Leonardo unveils new digital technology to revolutionise how armed forces suppress and defeat modern enemy air defences

• The new BriteStorm payload can fly ahead of friendly forces on-board Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and launched effects, deceiving enemy defences with sophisticated digital jamming and deception techniques.
• Successful flights with the UK Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RAF RCO), proving the capability, have already taken place.
• Leonardo launched the product at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA)'s Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington D.C.

Leonardo has launched a new product, called ‘BriteStorm’, that will allow armed forces to operate deep within enemy territory, even when that territory is guarded by modern Integrated Air Defence Systems (IADS).

BriteStorm is able to perform ‘stand-in jamming’: an airborne electronic warfare capability, deployed ahead of the main force, to deliver high-powered interference against a wide spectrum of threats. By doing so, BriteStorm degrades the enemy’s IADS, supressing its ability to detect and lock onto other platforms, protecting friendly forces and enabling their mission.

The BriteStorm payload is designed to be installed on the widest possible range of UAVs and launched effects. It will equip each platform with an advanced array of digital deception techniques, deployable at long range.

The UK Royal Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) is working with Leonardo in relation to the capability and has purchased payloads to conduct trials. Successful flights with the RCO proving the capability have already taken place.

Developed at Leonardo’s electronic warfare research and manufacturing base in Luton, UK, BriteStorm builds on the Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) technology underpinning Leonardo’s in-service BriteCloud countermeasure, the only DRFM-based expendable on the market to have been demonstrated effective in live tests. In contrast to BriteCloud, which is designed to disrupt incoming missiles’ radar guidance systems, BriteStorm has been engineered to confuse and suppress ground-based surveillance radars, preventing the enemy from tracking and then engaging friendly forces.

BriteStorm works by using Leonardo’s mission-tested DRFM technology to detect and evaluate the electronic warfare threat environment and then choose the most relevant countermeasure technique. Depending on the situation, BriteStorm’s effects can range from barraging the enemy system with electronic noise to more sophisticated techniques such as creating dozens of realistic ‘ghost’ fighter jet signatures, confusing and misdirecting the enemy response.

BriteStorm is small, lightweight and platform-agnostic. A standard BriteStorm fit incorporates a platform-specific antenna, transmit-receive modules and Leonardo’s Miniature Techniques Generator. It is simple to integrate, making BriteStorm an accessible route to establishing a powerful, attritable, stand-in jamming capability. The BriteStorm development team has drawn on Leonardo’s company-wide programme of digital transformation to create a powerful and sophisticated product, whilst ensuring the payload can be considered attritable.

In addition to the UK Ministry of Defence, Leonardo views the U.S. Department of Defense as a key potential customer for BriteStorm, with the payload able to deliver a capability advantage to operators in contested electronic warfare environments, while being rapidly reprogrammable to match the pace of the threat. BriteStorm has been designed to be readily exportable, with demonstration units already in the USA. Leonardo is expecting to see further interest in BriteStorm from customers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.