US defence technology provider Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has completed the first flight of its contractor-owned/contractor-operated (COCO) surveillance jet Athena.
Based on a modified Bombardier Global 6500 business jet, the aircraft is designed as a high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform for the US Army.
Sierra Nevada has been performing integration work to militarise Global 6500s at a facility in Hagerstown, Maryland – where the first of the modified jets launched from earlier this month. The company announced the milestone on 22 November.
“SNC’s pivot to creating a rapidly configurable jet ISR capability is a ground-breaking development that will revolutionise how our customers plan and execute ISR missions,” says Tim Owings, executive vice-president of Sierra Nevada’s mission solutions business area.
The aircraft’s first flight will be followed by additional testing ahead of Sierra Nevada’s COCO contract to deliver ISR services under the Athena programme, which will see the company supply the aircraft, pilots and flight, maintenance and logistics support.
While the Sierra Nevada aircraft will be focused on collecting signals intelligence, a separately contracted COCO Athena variant targeting long-range radar collection is being built by L3Harris and MAG Aerospace. That aircraft is also based on a Global 6500.
The contractor-operated aircraft will help the US Army determine how best to employ a business jet-based ISR aircraft while the service awaits delivery of the forthcoming High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (Hades).
Sierra Nevada was selected as the winner of that programme in August with a Global 6500-based proposal that edged out a competing bid from a team of rivals including L3Harris, Leidos and MAG Aerospace.
L3Harris appealed the decision in October, freezing initial work on the Hades effort, which seeks to deliver a so-called “deep sensing” aircraft to perform airborne surveillance and intelligence collection over long ranges.
Alongside several other Greek-themed airborne ISR development programmes, the Athena and Hades aircraft will replace army’s fleet of legacy turboprop surveillance aircraft.
