Business jet manufacturer Bombardier has delivered its eighth example of an advanced communications platform to the US Air Force (USAF).
Known as the E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node – or BACN – the modified business jet is described by the USAF as “wi-fi in the sky”, providing an airborne relay station to extend communication ranges, bridge radio frequencies and “translate” incompatible communications systems.
The BACN is based on Bombardier’s Global 6000, with mission systems integration and sustainment work performed by Northrop Grumman.
Bombardier on 31 October said it had turned over the eighth BACN example to the USAF at the Bombardier Defense service centre in Hartford, Connecticut. The jet marks the fourth aircraft delivered under a 2021 multi-year contract valued at roughly $465 million.
Bombardier says it has a ninth E-11A scheduled for delivery in 2025. The original contract included options for up to six BACN aircraft, the first of which was provided to the air force in 2022. Those jets are additions to the pre-existing USAF BACN fleet, which included just four E-11As.
The USAF’s growing E-11A inventory is another example of how the Pentagon is increasingly turning to modified business jets to fulfill speciality aviation missions.
In addition to the communications relay function of the BACN fleet, modified business jets from both Bombardier and Gulfstream are being developed for a range of missions, including various types of long-range intelligence collection gathering and electronic warfare.
“The speed, agility and low operating costs of our Global jets make them ideally suited for specialised missions meant to strengthen national and international security initiatives, such as the critical BACN programme,” says Jean-Christophe Gallagher, executive vice-president of Bombardier Defense.
The E-11 platform was created during the multi-decade NATO operation in Afghanistan, where rugged mountains often disrupted radio communications for forces on the ground.
“BACN technology reduces line-of-sight issues by enabling real-time information flow across the battle space between similar and dissimilar tactical data link and voice systems through relay, bridging and data translation,” the USAF says.
In January 2020, an E-11A crashed in Taliban-controlled Ghazni Province, killing the aircraft’s two crew. It was the last fatal aviation incident of the conflict for the US-led coalition.
Although the Taliban claimed credit for the aircraft’s downing, the USAF determined engine failure and subsequent pilot error were to blame.
