Gulfstream is refining its proposals for special mission variants of the Gulfstream V ultra long-range business jet.
The General Dynamics subsidiary is keen for the US Department of Defense to fund studies of the so-called EC-37SM as an alternative to airliner-based platforms for intelligence gathering and other special missions.
Buddy Sams, Gulfstream vice president, government sales and marketing, says the US Air Force and US Navy are developing operational concepts giving an in-service aircraft with two wing-mounted equipment pods rather than the four originally envisaged. A canoe fairing, up to 7.3m (24ft) long below the forward fuselage, would carry signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment.
The USAF is considering an aircraft that could deploy rapidly as part of an Expeditionary Air Force, giving an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability ahead of the arrival of dedicated aircraft such as the Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint, says Sams.
An ISR aircraft could be equipped with a radar with airborne early warning, synthetic aperture radar and ground moving target indicator modes and an electro-optical/infrared surveillance pod, as well as the SIGINT capability. USAF Air Combat Comm-and is facing pressure to fund a full study. Concepts will be further defined and a special mission GV could enter service before 2005.
The USN is studying a stand-off electronic attack aircraft which would be equipped with electronic warfare pods and towed decoys as well as the SIGINT equipment.
Sams says Gulfstream has also looked at dorsal radar fairings, which could house AEW radars. Ericsson's Erieye radar has been mounted on similar-sized platforms, while Northrop Grumman has looked at business jets and regional airliners for its Multirole Electronically Scanned Array AEW system.
Equipment pods allow for rapid upgrade as systems develop.
Source: Flight International
