Bombardier has delivered the first Global 6500 business jet to the US Army intended to be part of the service’s new fleet of long-range spy aircraft.
The Wichita, Kansas-based defence unit of the Canadian airframer announced the milestone on 25 November, touting the Global 6500’s “speed, endurance-at-range and altitude capabilities to support deep-sensing for the army of tomorrow”.
“This best-in-class jet is the future-proofed solution to provide the US Army with the capabilities needed to face current and future threats,” says Steve Patrick, vice-president of Bombardier Defense.
The Global 6500 serves as the foundation for the army’s High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System, or Hades, programme.
With range of 6,600nm (12,223km), 18h of endurance, top speed of Mach 0.9 (516kt) and maximum operating altitude of 51,000ft, the twinjet will provide what army officials describe as “transformational increases” in flight performance over service’s current fleet of turboprop intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft – based on Beechcraft King Air 350s and De Havilland Canada Dash 7s and Dash 8s.
Those MC/RC-12 aircraft were fielded to support counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the USA controlled airspace over enemies that mostly lacked effective anti-air capabilities.
By contrast, the Hades fleet is designed to provide long-range surveillance of sovereign adversaries like China, whose territorial airspace is protected by sophisticated air defences and modern fighters.
The improved range and altitude of the Global 6500-based Hades jets will allow the Pentagon to collect intelligence on Beijing’s military activities, while remaining well away from those dangers.
“We remain excited about the opportunities we can unlock by pairing the performance, versatility and reliability of the Global 6500 with modern payloads aligned [with] priority intelligence requirements,” says Andrew Evans, director of the ISR Task Force at US Army headquarters.
The new Hades fleet is “centrepiece” of the army’s intelligence collection strategy, according to Evans. He has previously described the programme as the “most-significant aerial ISR transformation in the history of the army”.
Notably, the army only expects to purchase a maximum of 14 Hades aircraft to replace its 70 legacy RC/MC-12 turboprops. The service plans to rely on the greatly improved capabilities of the Hades jets to compensate for having fewer aircraft.
“You cannot take a King Air and range any of the problem sets that you need to range off the coast of China,” Evans said at the army’s annual aviation conference April.
Systems integrator Sierra Nevada Corporation was selected by the army in August to be the prime contractor for the Hades effort under a nearly $1 billion contract to oversee the modification and militarisation of each Global 6500, including installation of the all-important intelligence collection sensors.
However, competitor L3Harris appealed that decision in September, freezing any work on aircraft modification until government auditors complete a review of the contracting process. A judgement is expected by the end of December.
In the meantime, the army is moving forward with a number of other Greek mythology-themed airborne ISR programmes that will precede delivery of Hades aircraft.
Sierra Nevada is a prime contractor for one of those efforts – development of a signals-collection aircraft known as Athena-S. The company completed its first flight of that type earlier this month. L3Harris and MAG Aerospace will also provide a long-range radar platform called Athena-R. Both the Athena-S and Athena-R aircraft are based on Global 6500s.
Those aircraft are to be owned and operated by contractors, who will provide aircraft, pilots and flight, maintenance and logistics support for a fee as the army awaits delivery of the government-owned Hades fleet.
Service officials say the contractor-owned/contractor-operated model will allow them to determine how best to employ their own Global 6500 spy jets once those are delivered.
The Pentagon is increasingly turning to business jets to support its speciality aviation missions, including ISR and electronic warfare, drawn by reliability, affordability, performance and availability of the civilian aircraft.
