The latest order for L3Harris’ Global 6500-based Aeris X platform follows a competitive win in South Korea last year.
Military systems integrator L3Harris has secured another order for its new airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, and plans to compete for other open opportunities in Canada and Europe.
The US company, which specialises in adapting civil aircraft for military use, secured a competitive win in South Korea year against Boeing and Saab with its Aeris X AEW&C platform – housed in a Bombardier Global 6500 business jet.
Now, L3Harris tells FlightGlobal the company has secured another deal with a second international operator.
“We have another one that’s also been signed, but I can’t disclose the customer,” says Jason Lambert president of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at L3Harris.
Lambert does confirm that the order covers multiple Aeris aircraft.
In addition to the Global 6500-based Aeris X, L3Harris also offers a version built around the Gulfstream G550 called the Aeris A.
In addition to its two existing contracts, L3Harris is also competing for open AEW&C tenders from the Royal Canadian Air Force and NATO headquarters in Brussels. Canada is seeking to add an airborne early warning capability to its armed forces for the first time, while NATO is pursuing a replacement for its fleet of Boeing E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control (AWACS) jets
NATO headquarters had originally planned to buy six E-7 Wedgetails from Boeing to recapitalise its AWACS fleet, but dropped that commitment last year after senior US officials publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the AEW&C jet, which is not yet in US service.
Despite a report from French media outlet La Lettre on 23 April that NATO has selected the Saab GlobalEye (also based on the Global 6500) to replace the E-3, neither the alliance itself nor Saab are confirming that such a decision has been made or a contract signed.
“Airborne early warning and control is a key capability for the Alliance. The nations participating in the initiative to replace our existing AWACS fleet continue their work on this with the support of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA),” a NATO official told FlightGlobal on 23 April.
On that same day, Saab’s vice-president of media relations Mattias Radstrom told FlightGlobal that no contract has been signed for a GlobalEye acquisition by NSPA.
“We have noted the information in the media,” Radstrom says. “It is up to NATO to comment on where they are in their procurement process. I can confirm that we have provided information to them but we have not signed a contract or received an order from NATO for GlobalEye.”
Saab chief executive Micael Johansson, who presented the company’s first-quarter earnings on 23 April, also made no mention of a definitive win in the NATO AWACS replacement contest.
“We have given information to NATO connected to the IAFSC [Initial Alliance Future Surveillance and Control] programme – let’s see what happens there, that’s an opportunity.”
Johansson provided no indication that a decision was expected imminently, nor did Lambert, who spoke to FlightGlobal on 16 April at the yearly Army Aviation Association of America conference.
Both Saab and L3Harris are also facing off in the Canadian competition, which will cover six aircraft.
L3Harris is competing for both opportunities using its Canadian subsidiary MAS as the prime contractor, based in Mirabel, Quebec.
Ottawa’s AEW&C tender comes with some unique requirements, Lambert notes, such as the need to conduct aerial refuelling.
“They’ve got to fly an 8h sortie just to get on station to go patrol the Arctic,” he notes. “So, we’re working along with Bombardier to develop capability to do that.”
That would mark the first-ever instance of a Bombardier business jet being modified to incorporate an air-to-air refuelling. Gulfstream has done some limited concept work on adding an aerial refuelling capability to the G550, but has never moved a forward a design.
Although the Aeris X and GlobalEye are both housed in the same Global 6500 jet, Lambert is confident that L3Harris has the superior AEW&C offering.
For one, the American design houses its all-important IAI Elta active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and other sensors inside the main aerostructure of the Global 6500’s – rather than using a large, externally mounted sensor as do the GlobalEye and E-7.
Lambert says the better aerodynamics (and resulting improvements to fuel consumption, range, and flight performance) of an internal sensor played a role in the Aeris X’s win in South Korea.
The other significant advantage for the L3Harris design is the ability to to provide continuous 360° radar coverage – something the standard GlobalEye configuration does not offer.
“It’s actually really slick how it works,” Lambert says. “Rather than have a single radar that does the 360, we have S-band radars in an extended nose and tail and we have L-band in the side cheeks with a software package that runs on a loop. So you’re getting constant 360° coverage, all software driven.”
Saab is reportedly developing its own solution for full-scope radar visibility on the GlobalEye, whose dorsal-mounted Erieye ER AESA radar offers 120° of sensor coverage on either side of the aircraft – thus requiring manoeuvring to achieve full coverage.
In Korea, the Swedish company bolstered the GlobalEye with additional sensors mounted on the fuselage to provide 360° radar scanning.
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