Thales Scorpion HMCS for Spain
Thales will equip the Spanish Air Force's EF-18 fighter jets with Scorpion Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems (HMCS), under an order announced on 10 May.
Scorpion provides pilots with full colour symbology - including navigation, intelligence and combat - for both daytime and night-time missions. It also provides target cueing in potentially degraded visual environments, allowing target designation and allocation of points of interest with the aircraft’s sensors.
Eighty Scorpion HMCS will be installed on the aircraft under the contract, with installation to take place between 2016 and 2017 after the successful completion of the operational qualification phase and air-to-ground and air-to-air testing.
Thales will be responsible for viability study, testing phase, integration with test aircraft, qualification support and integration in the fleet. The company will also be responsible for the development and production of the specific Scorpion configuration for the Spanish EF-18 including ejection safety analysis.
The qualification phase will include interoperability with the IRIS-T missile and the daytime/night-time-imaging pod for cueing lightening targets.
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