The Weekend Australian reports that the ADF will acquire 265 radio-controlled IED electronic warfare (CREW) systems under FMS arrangements, in what the US Defense Department describes as an “urgent procurement” for Australian troops in “support of Operation Enduring Freedom”.
Manufactured by EDO Communications and Countermeasures Systems under a US$17 million contract with the US Navy, the CREW systems are designed to thwart the practice by the Taliban of remotely detonating IEDs when a patrol passes by.
The CREW systems are vehicle-mounted electronic jammers designed to prevent the initiation of radio-controlled IEDs, the US Defense Department said.
The ADF already has CREW systems in operation in Oruzgan, but said the purchase of the extra 265 systems would help “round out” its numbers.
A spokesman said the ADF believed it had sufficient CREW systems for its current needs in Afghanistan, but the extra systems would provide a “spares pool”, and many of them would be “dispatched to Afghanistan to replenish stock holdings as priorities dictate”.
The order for the new CREWS systems was made on December 27 2010 and they are due for delivery to Australia by June.