January 26, 2012: so far, nearly 200 of the American ALQ-211 AIDEWS (Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite) pods have been sold to six foreign customers. Most use it for their F-16 fighters. The ALQ-211 allows the aircraft to detect radar, jamming, and laser signals hitting the aircraft, as well as the presence of chemical weapons. ALQ-211 also provides some jamming of its own and assistance on where the signal is coming from, so the pilot can move the aircraft away from the threat. ALQ-211 is also installed in helicopters but not as a pod. Rather, the individual components are installed in the helicopter where space is available.
The ALQ-211 has been in service for a decade and there have been several upgrades and variants. Foreign customers do not get an ALQ-211 with the same capabilities that American aircraft receive. Components of ALQ-211 are programmable, so that the system can quickly be updated for newly discovered enemy equipment. The pod version, the ALQ-211(V)9 (version 9), costs about $3.5 million each.
