BAE SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES FIRST DELIVERIES OF SIREN ROUND TO ROYAL NAVY

BAE SYSTEMS Avionics Group has begun delivery of Siren, the active off-board decoy system, to the UK Royal Navy following the successful completion of acceptance trials. The verdict of the procurement and acceptance teams was extremely positive, concluding that Siren was the most capable off-board jammer available. A further successful fleet weapons trial was carried out in mid-September with the system performing in line with operational expectations.

Siren is an advanced decoy system designed to protect ships from missile threats by luring incoming anti-ship missiles away from their target. Launched from a 130mm decoy launcher it uses a two stage parachute system which slows the decoy round down at a pre-programmed time before deploying a second stage parawing, under which the advanced programmable electronic payload descends to detect and counter the missile threat.

The ability of Siren to generate sophisticated jamming waveforms is unique amongst the worlds limited types of naval decoys. The Siren payload contains some of the most up to date RF, digital and analogue electronic circuitry available, enabling the round to quickly detect, identify and track threats to ships. Siren is able to handle multiple threats simultaneously even in dense RF environments.

Norman Hyde, Naval EW IPT Team Leader is in no doubt about the benefits Siren could bring: "Siren is a vital addition to the Royal Navy's defensive systems and will provide a high capability against missile threats in the future.�