8 June 2012, in News

The Finnish Air Force has made a successful first flight of the BOL countermeasures dispensing system from defence- and security company Saab on the F-18 Hornet fighter.   The integration of the BOL countermeasures dispenser is part of Finnish Air Force Hornet Mid Life Upgrade 2 (MLU2) Program and Saab was awarded the contract for production and integration of the BOL countermeasures dispenser system in September 2009.

Proven Performance

The BOL Countermeasures Dispensing System from Saab protects the Aircraft against both heat-seeking and radar guided missiles and has proven superior performance. The BOL integration on the F-18’s dramatically increases the amount of countermeasure payload carried by each aircraft, significantly improving combat survivability.

The BOL system uses wingtip vortices to distribute the chaff- and IR payload, which greatly improves dispersion and the rapid formation of a protective cloud, while avoiding the need for pyrotechnics and making it quicker, easier and safer to load the system. Each BOL holds 160 chaff/IR packages, five times more than conventional pyrotechnical dispensers.

The BOL countermeasures dispenser system is in operational service on the Royal Australian Air Force’s F/A-18 Hornet, the UK Tornado, US Air Force/Air National Guard’s F-15 Eagle, EF-2000 Typhoon and the Gripen fighter.

Source: Saab
Photo: Rob Vogelaar Z.A.P.P.