By B.C. Kessner
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) yesterday said it has finished acceptance test procedure (ATP) testing for the first of five Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft and ground stations bound for the Iraqi Air Force, equipment that will “significantly increase” current ISR capabilities.
“The ISR package and fixed ground station met all technical specifications, with easy maintainability of the equipment also noted,” Linden Blue, president of GA-ASI’s Reconnaissance Systems Group, said in a statement. “Additionally, the ISR package is fully integrated and requires only one sensor operator onboard the aircraft to run the sensors and transmit the data to the fixed ground station.”
Testing was completed in June and the first aircraft departed for Iraq later that month, a GA-ASI spokesperson told Defense Daily yesterday. The delivery schedule calls for one aircraft per month ending in October, the spokesperson added.
The company is under subcontract to Hawker Beechcraft and the ISR system deliveries fall under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The ISR aircraft and ground station met all requirements as witnessed by the Air Force FMS Program Office and Hawker Beechcraft, it said.
The ATP consisted of a series of test flights demonstrating the sensor and communications equipment aboard the modified Beechcraft King Air 350 Extended Range (ER) aircraft, including theL-3 Communications [LLL] Wescam MX-15i electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) turret, L-3 Communications West mini-T series airborne data link, Exclusive Charter Services tailored sensor operator consoles, and GA-ASI CLAW integrated sensor software.
The GA-ASI Lynx II synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI) was also demonstrated. Three Lynx SAR systems are being delivered this month–one is already there–and three more will arrive in October, including a spare, the spokesperson said.
On the groundside, multiple man-transportable laptop video receivers and a fixed ground station (FGS) received real-time ISR data via data link communications from the aircraft from a considerable distance, the company said. The first ground station was shipped to Iraq immediately after testing, GA-ASI said.
GA-ASI assembled and integrated the sensor and communications equipment onto the aircraft operator console station and the fixed ground station at its facilities in San Diego, Calif. The company also recently completed sensor operator and maintenance training for U.S. and Iraqi Air Force operators and contract logistics support (CLS) personnel.