L3Harris F-16 EW system cleared for low-rate production, company says

DUBAI AIRSHOW — L3Harris’ electronic warfare system for the F-16 fighter has been approved by the US Air Force to begin low-rate production, the company revealed this week, teeing up first deliveries of the system by the end of next year.

Travis Ruhl, the company’s lead for Viper Shield, told Breaking Defense on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow here that the EW suite recently cleared what’s known as production readiness review, transitioning the program into low-rate production. Next the company plans to ramp up to full-rate production by the first quarter of next year.

“The hardware is not going to change; it is set at this moment for the customer,” Ruhl said on Tuesday, underscoring that production processes are all in place. “So we’re super excited, because that means, it’s getting close to the end where we start to deliver the systems.”

L3Harris plans to hand over the initial batch of Viper Shield kits in December 2026, Ruhl continued, the first of 219 systems on order for the company that will be delivered through the foreign military sales process to seven customers, including Bahrain, which will receive new jets, while Poland will upgrade existing ones. A total of 168 kits will equip new-build Block 70/72 fighters set for export manufactured by Lockheed Martin, while 51 will be retrofitted on existing aircraft, a delivery profile Ruhl said will play out over “a period of about a year and a half.”

The Viper Shield system, like other EW suites, provides self-protection for fighters against threats in the electromagnetic spectrum, with features like a radar warning receiver and the ability to jam enemy radars. The kit is a modernized version of legacy EW systems, updated to more adequately address quickly evolving threats in the spectrum that have dominated the battlefield in places like Ukraine.

Ruhl said L3Harris also plans to offer Viper Shield in a podded configuration first for the F-16 and then explore opportunities for other aircraft. He added that L3Harris has held talks with companies manufacturing drone wingmen to offer Viper Shield either as an internal system or a pod.

“We’ve built it with upgrade space in it,” Ruhl said, highlighting discussions with Lockheed about incorporating new features like “operationally relevant direction finding and geolocation,” among other features. “You’d just be able to add capabilities over time, so low-risk now and then you build capabilities, as opposed to trying to do one thing all at the same time, which can be a challenge in the EW world.”

While the newest development directly affects foreign air forces, L3Harris and Ruhl himself are hardly shy about pursuing a key ambition: supplanting Northrop Grumman as the supplier of EW kits to upgrade US Air Force F-16s.

Ruhl claimed that L3Harris has a leg up over Northrop since the service could leverage dollars spent by other countries to develop the system, while also being able to move faster since Viper Shield is now in production. Northrop, for its part, has reportedly said it’s ready to start producing its F-16 EW system dubbed IVEWS with funding from the fiscal 2026 budget once it passes.

Pressed on the point, Ruhl conceded that the Air Force would have to join a queue of countries already in line for Viper Shield, saying “you’d have to balance that.” Still, he said that now that the manufacturing process is sorted out, all that’s left to do is scale up. 

“So would it be instantaneous? No, but in short order, before the end of ’27, you could have systems for the US Air Force. And even sooner than that, depending on how we balance all of the needs,” he said.

Shortly after Ruhl spoke with Breaking Defense, L3Harris announced the company signed a memorandum of understanding for collaborating with EDGE Group to explore defense technology solutions in the UAE. The agreement, according to a press release, includes “a framework for joint research and development in artificial intelligence and autonomy and for deploying these technologies.”