The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has disclosed plans to procure a new passive offboard decoy system to provide soft-kill anti-ship missile defence for Royal Navy (RN) ships.
The Outfit DLFPhoto by: 3b
Known as the Naval Passive Off-Board Decoy (N-POD) system, the new equipment is intended to replace the current Outfit DLF(3b) system in RN service. Outfit DLF(3b) is a passive radio frequency (RF) countermeasure using a floating inflatable corner reflector.
In a prior information notice issued on 18 February, the Maritime Combat Systems team within the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation advised that it was “considering replacing the current floating offboard decoy system (DLF[3b]) with a similar system”, adding that the N-POD requirement had been classified UK secret – UK eyes only and would therefore not be advertised in the EU.