Leidos and L3Harris partner on US Army ISR aircraft for ATHENA-S

The companies will seek to deliver two ISR aircraft in support of the programme.

The team will work to modify two Bombardier Global 6500 jets with radar, electronic and communications intelligence capabilities tailored to ATHENA-S requirements, the partners said.

The aircraft are intended to support US Army missions in the US European Command area of responsibility and are designed to close the gap between the army’s medium- and high-altitude ISR aircraft fleet.

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ATHENA-S will fly at higher operating altitudes, provide increased range, greater endurance, more capacity for larger payloads and greater standoff ranges, along with next-generation sensor technology.

Leidos currently operates two Leidos Special Mission Aircraft (LSMA) for the US Army’s Airborne Reconnaissance Targeting and Exploitation Multi-Mission Intelligence System (ARTEMIS) programme in support of EUCOM.

The LSMA provides deep-sensing ELINT to enable threat analysis and delivery of long-range precision fires.

L3Harris currently operates a Bombardier Global series jet as part of the army’s Airborne Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare System (ARES) programme, supporting US Indo-Pacific Command.

In addition to ARES, L3Harris is also working on Phase 2 of the US Army’s Multi-Domain Sensing System programme to develop, build, integrate and demonstrate prototype electronic and communications intelligence sensors for the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) programme.

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

Athena S/R (Global 6500)