NAVAIR is planning to acquire Active Expendable Decoys with a 2″x1″x8″ form factor from Leonardo UK, hinting at the system being the BriteCloud 218 countermeasure.
The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) will soon negotiate and award a contract to Leonardo UK for up to 6,000 Active Expendable Decoy (AED) to equip the U.S. Navy’s F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets. The development, first reported by Breaking Defense, was revealed in a presolicitation notice published in June 2024.
Leonardo UK has been described as the “only contractor who possesses the manufacturing technology, infrastructure, capacity, and platform qualifications to complete all requirements” and deliver the AEDs. The notice explains that the contract includes a base year, Fiscal Year 2027, as well as up to four option years through FY2031.
AEDs produce powerful radio frequency emissions to deceive, jam, overwhelm and draw away incoming anti-air missiles from the aircraft. Contrary to towed decoys currently employed on many aircraft, including the F-35 and F/A-18, these decoys are deployed like standard chaff and flares cartridges, drawing fire further away from the aircraft.
A total of 3,000 to 6,000 AEDs will be procured per year, together with “spare impulse cartridges, related support equipment and repairs, and field service representative support.” The new decoys will equip the F-35, F/A-18 and other unspecified U.S. Government platforms.

Proven for operational use – @DeptofDefense’s Foreign Comparative Testing programme has issued #Britecloud with a Fielding Recommendation for the US #F16 Fighting Falcon. Learn about world’s 1st Digital Radio Frequency Memory #DRFM https://t.co/kTwUTmUTvx @Leonardo_UK #DSEIJapan pic.twitter.com/LxhFwjuq0E
— Leonardo (@Leonardo_live) March 15, 2023

The contract presolicitation follows an April 2025 Sources Sought notice that scoured vendors for the AEDs. That notice mentioned that the AEDs are supposed to provide additional Radio Frequency Countermeasure (RFCM) capability to the aircraft, adding that the F-35 has already “tested and integrated AED capability, which resulted in a fielding decision,” while the decision for the F/A-18, possibly referring to both the F/A-18-E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler, will be taken in 2027.
While the notice does not specify the name of the AED which will be provided by Leonardo, the mention of this specifically being Leonardo UK and the Place of Performance being Luton strongly suggests that the AED being sought is the BriteCloud 218 decoy. Additionally, the 2x1x8 inch form factor further points to the BriteCloud 218 decoy, which was already tested by the U.S. Air Force in 2022 – receiving the designation AN/ALQ-260(V)1 – and eyed to equip the U.S. Navy’s F-35s in June 2024.
System and vendor requirements
As previously mentioned, the AEDs are supposed to provide additional Radio Frequency Countermeasure (RFCM) capability to the aircraft, complementing the ones already fielded.
For instance, the F-35 is equipped with the BAE Systems ASQ-239 onboard self-protection system, which also includes the ALE-70 fiber-optic towed decoy. Equipping the F-35 with BriteCloud significantly enhances the aircraft’s survivability, as the stealth jet is not equipped with chaffs, while it is able to carry only a limited number of ALE-70 decoys.
A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet flies over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Jan. 29, 2025. (Image credit: USN/Staff Sgt. William Rio Rosado)
The April 2025 Sources Sought notice lists the criteria that the contractor, now identified as Leonardo, must meet:

2″ x 1″ x 8″ form factor
Mission load programmable by the Government
Demonstrated RFCM performance capability evaluated at TRL-9, defined as: “Actual system proven through successful mission operations”
Evaluated at MRL-9, defined as: “Demonstrated Low-Rate Production capability in place to begin Full-Rate production”
Must be qualified for use on F-35 and ready for immediate production
Must be qualified and ready for use on F-18 and other USG platforms following a production decision

These requirements fit the description of BriteCloud 218, a smaller variant of the 55 mm cylindrical BriteCloud round which can fit the 2”x1”x8” U.S.-made chaff/flare dispensers, like the standard AN/ALE-47 countermeasure dispensers installed on many U.S. aircraft. The U.S. Air National Guard has issued a “fielding recommendation” for the decoy after the successful completion of the Foreign Comparative Testing on the service’s F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets in 2022.
The notice also mentions that the contract award is expected in November 2026, with deliveries set to start “as early as four months, but no later than ten months after contract award.” The same delivery schedule applies to the option years, and all AEDs must be “delivered within 12 months of the first delivery in each period.”
F-35 testing
The testing of the AED on the F-35 Lightning II is not a novelty, as NAVAIR already mentioned in 2024 that F-35 aircraft have tested and integrated AED capability. This resulted in a fielding decision, although no other details were disclosed, and a first contract opportunity notice for the requirement to procure AEDs was released in June 2024.
Aviation Week reported that in 2023 the F-35 Joint Program Office acquired a Saab BOL countermeasure dispenser, which can also employ BriteCloud, to use in a flight demonstration. The BOL is installed externally and already in service with the Royal Australian Air Force’s F/A-18 Hornet, U.S. Air Force’s F-15 Eagle, Eurofighter Typhoon and the Saab Gripen.
An F-35C Lightning II, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 97, launches from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. (Image credit: U.S. Navy)
It is unclear how the system would be installed on the F-35, although the only logical solution would be to install it behind the LAU-151/A External Rail Launcher used to carry the AIM-9X Sidewinder. This solution would be similar to the one used for the F-15, where the BOL was installed behind the LAU-128 rails.
Another mention of the testing was found in the March 2025 press release on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) about the change of command of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2. This was listed among the advancements under the leadership of outgoing CVW 2 commander Capt. Timothy Myers, which also included the F-35’s first operational GBU-54 employment, the fleet’s first Long Range Anti-Ship Missile software validation test on both the Block II and Block III variants of the F/A-18E/F and routine AIM-174B operations during RIMPAC 2024.
The AED was identified by its ALQ-260 designation, with press release mentioning it was expended for the first time by an F-35 squadron. The squadron was not identified by the service, however CVW 2 has only one squadron which operates the F-35C, Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 97 “Warhawks.”
BriteCloud 218
In our 2021 exhaustive feature on the BriteCloud, we reported that the system is a battery powered, self-contained cartridge offering off-board jamming  – hence the term “active” –  and dropped like conventional chaffs and flares. The system creates a large distance between the aircraft and itself, so the missile and its shrapnel miss completely the aircraft.
According to Leonardo, BriteCloud can defeat the majority of RF-guided surface-to-air and air-to-air threat systems, including the ones that rely on the “home-on-jam” guidance (when the missile targets the jamming signal, dangerous especially for aircraft equipped only with an internal or podded jammer). After BriteCloud is ejected, it starts to search for priority threats, collecting the incoming radar pulses and cross-referencing them against a pre-programmed threat library.
BriteCloud 218 and BriteCloud 55 shown side-by-side. (Photo: Leonardo)
Upon finding a match, BriteCloud’s on-board computer applies its advanced algorithms to simulate a “false target” so accurate that the threat system cannot detect the deception and distinguish it from the real aircraft. This happens because, as mentioned by Leonardo, the decoy is able provide both Doppler and range obscuration with range and velocity “gates” that confuse the ECCM systems.
BriteCloud is what is known as a “second generation” expendable active decoy, which differs from the first generation decoys, generically called also towed decoys, developed towards the end of the Cold War and reliant on a cable that connects them to the aircraft so they can keep the required distance and also receive data and power for the jamming signal.
BriteCloud is developed by Leonardo’s facilities in Luton (UK). Following the successful tests of the 55 mm BriteCloud round, called BriteCloud 55, Leonardo developed an even smaller variant called BriteCloud 218 which can fit the 2”x1”x8” US-made chaff/flare dispensers.
Leonardo says BriteCloud requires minimal platform integration as it just needs to be loaded in the chaff/flare dispensers. Because of this, the system requires little to no integration efforts with the F-35 since it can fit inside its existing chaff dispensers, making it a sort of plug-and-play capability.
Service and testing history
BriteCloud is already in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF), which used it on the Tornado GR4 after trials on the jet in 2014 and 2015, the latter in the United States. That test saw “extensive modelling and simulation of the various engagement scenarios was performed using Tactical Engagement Simulation Software (TESS) produced by Leonardo,” Leonardo explained. “TESS was utilised before, during and after the trials, with excellent correlation between the simulated and real world data.”

The USAF has tested Leonardo’s #BriteCloud 218 DRFM Expendable Active Decoy (EAD) on F-16Cs. This fits the standard 2x1x8 CMD like the AN/ALE-47. BriteCloud may replace or complement the AN/ALE-50 “Little Buddy” Towed Decoy System currently used by the Vipers against AAM/SAMs pic.twitter.com/XvOB7D3Xfa
— Sameer Joshi (@joe_sameer) September 4, 2022

Swedish defense major Saab in 2015 conducted trials with BriteCloud 55s from a Gripen E, successfully deploying the AED from the fighter. In September 2016 the RAF then purchased a significant number of the decoys, part of a second stage to extend evaluation of BriteCloud’s protective effect with the RAF’s fleet of Tornado jets, and develop a ‘concept of operations’ (CONOPS).
The service cleared BriteCloud for service with the Tornados in 2018. This was followed by Leonardo being contracted to support a series of trials to integrate the BriteCloud 55 with the service’s Typhoon FGR4s.
The U.S. Air National Guard has also issued a ‘fielding recommendation’ for BriteCloud 218 as part of a Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program involving U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets. The service subsequently designated BriteCloud 218 as AN/ALQ-260(V)1.