Cost shock leads to second chance for Brazilian jet

US Army leaders want to give the Embraer ERJ-145 another chance, overruling programme officials who three weeks ago said the Brazillian regional jet had been purged from the Lockheed Martin Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) contract.

The shock of the estimated $600 million bill to replace the ERJ-145 with a bigger aircraft has prompted the leadership’s dramatic turnaround. Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey is adamant that a new effort should be made to resolve a sensor weight growth crisis without dropping the ERJ-145 as the ACS platform or greatly increasing the programme’s budget.

Although ACS programme manager Ed Bair said last month the decision had been made to absorb the extra cost to select a replacement aircraft, Harvey disagreed. “I have not accepted that yet,” Harvey said on 3 October at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting.

Harvey’s stance may have implications for the US Navy’s participation in the programme. He challenged the ACS team to strive to resize the overweight sensor in a way that meets the army’s mission requirements, but still fits on the ERJ-145.

That may require a review of the extra weight needed to accommodate the unique USN requirements. One clear example is the number of workstations on board the aircraft. The army needs only four workstations to meet its requirement, but has agreed to adopt the USN’s requirement for six workstations to create a common design. The current sensor payload now exceeds the ERJ-145’s maximum capacity by 1,360kg (3,000lb), Bair says.

In effect, the ERJ-145’s re-emergence as a competitor for the re-selection effort means there are now five aircraft types in contention for the ACS. The Boeing 737, Bombardier Global Express, Embraer 190 and Gulfstream G550 are also in the contest. Raytheon is seeking to offer the baseline Global Express design used for the UK Ministry of Defense’s Sentinel R1 Airborne Standoff Radar programme, but with the ACS signals intelligence sensor package.

Source: Flight International