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Airborne Reconnaissance Targeting and Exploitation Multi-Mission Intelligence System aircraft, known as ARTEMIS. (US Army)
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. — As the U.S. military prepares requirements for its future fixed-wing surveillance aircraft to replace the RC-12 Guardrail, the service’s tested range of two commercial jets “opens the door from a mission perspective,” the program’s chief says.
Using two separate commercial jets owned and operated by Leidos and L3Harris, the Army is communicating future requirements for the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) to replace Guardrail. Now the Leidos RTMS jet is flying in Europe, and the L3Harris ARES plane has flown in the Pacific Ocean.
“It’s a completely different kind of CONOP. [concept of operations] Instead of what we’re doing at Guardrail, Ronald Rizzo, deputy director of sensors for air information in the Program Executive Office’s Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors office, told reporters at media day last week. “Back in the Cold War era, he lived in Germany and we flew over the German border. That was the extent of the region.
With ARTEMIS and ARES, “we are able to move quickly from one location to another very far away. So that opens it up from a mission perspective,” Rizzo said.
During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ARTEMIS aircraft covered the region with several flights a week before and after the conflict began. ARTEMIS departs from Romania and continues uninterrupted through Slovakia and Hungary – bordering Ukraine – and through Poland to Kaliningrad, Russia. The aircraft will complete routes in Romania, scanning Romania’s borders with Ukraine and Moldova. Recent flights show the plane flying for more than nine hours and up to 4,000 miles.
The ARTEMIS aircraft returns to the U.S. every few weeks, Rizzo said, where the Army updates the software on board.
“We work on software over and over again, with different sensors, hardware and iterate over and over again,” Rizzo said.
L3Harris has a similar mission in the Pacific. The plane arrived in the region in April and had flown 130 hours, according to a Defense News report in early June. According to that report, ARES is a larger platform with a higher altitude and longer range than ARTEMIS, allowing for a more powerful ISR payload.
“This is all to inform how we build the HADES record program,” Rizzo said.
Another concern for the military is how the commercial-class jet will continue to be in the arsenal. Under the two prototypes, the contractors are responsible for continuity, but the Army is receiving reports and feedback, Rizzo said.
“It’s something we’re looking at how we can take this to a program of record,” Rizzo said. “We still have to crack the nuts and bolts of how we, as an Army, maintain a commercial-class jet. It is being done,” he said.
This year, ARES is expected to participate in Project Convergence, but ARTEMIS will not. During last year’s Project Convergence, ARTEMIS was forced to fly to Europe during exercises amid rising tensions on the border between Russia and Ukraine. The aircraft participated in EDGE 21 last year.
While ARTEMIS and ARES are still flying test aircraft for HADES, the Army issued a data request for three HADES prototypes late last month. Under that RFI, the Army established two courses for the HADES program. In the first option, the contractor receives a pre-modified aircraft to carry sensors and radar. For the second option, the contractor receives a jet from the production line and must modify the airframe for radar and sensor integration.
The Army plans to field the HADES by 2028 and is looking to buy 10 to 16 of the jets, Rizzo said, but the number has not been finalized. According to the 2023 budget books, HADES prototype acquisition and integration will begin in the 23rd quarter. Proficiency testing and evaluation will begin in FY24 and military user evaluation will begin in FY26.
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