ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD – The U.S. Army Project Director for Sensors – Aerial Intelligence (PD SAI) entered into Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements on June 11, 2021 through the Consortium for Command, Control, and Communications in Cyberspace (C5) to engage L-3 Communications Integrated Systems and Raytheon Applied Signal Technology. The initial award is for Phase 1 of a Multi-Domain Sensing System (MDSS) program to demonstrate, develop, build, and integrate prototype electronic intelligence (ELINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT) sensors onto the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES), the Army’s next generation airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) system.
This competitive first phase of a multi-phased OTA prototype project will demonstrate the vendors’ sensors under controlled conditions, leading to Phase 2 in which one or more vendors will further develop and build their sensors specifically for the HADES platform. Phase 3 will then provide for a holistic COMINT/ELINT system to be flight tested and success criteria determined for further production. The value of the Phase 1 prototype project is expected to be $4.37 million over an eight month period of performance. The overall value of the OTA prototype project is expected to total approximately $49 million over all phases.
Phase 1 of the OTA prototype project is a competitive effort leading to down-select and award of a Phase 2 OTA to one or more vendors. The scope of Phase 1 includes sensor-level demonstrations to identify system capabilities and gaps in order to inform Phase 2 design
modifications, upgrades, and prototype fabrication. Remaining phases are planned to finalize the prototype design, integrate it onto the HADES aircraft platform, and conduct testing and evaluation.
“The Army is pursuing HADES to address the demands of future Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) against peer- and near-peer adversaries,” said Dennis Teefy, Project Director, PD SAI. “This follows the DoD MDO framework as described in the 2018 National Defense Strategy and in Army doctrine as described in The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations (TRADOC PAM 525-3-1, Dec 2018). HADES will be globally deployable and provide a multi-faceted sensing capability at higher altitudes and longer ranges, and with longer endurance than is currently available from the Army’s RC-12 Guardrail, MC-12 Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS), and EO-6C Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) aircraft. The goal is to provide deep-sensing intelligence collection of indicators and warnings, electronic order of battle, and patterns of life for target development. This will allow stand-off operations to detect, locate, identify, and track critical targets for the ground commander.”
The MDSS HADES program is a partnership between PD SAI at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and Project Manager (PM) Fixed Wing at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. PD SAI, led by Teefy, brings expertise in the acquisition of aerial sensors, while PM Fixed Wing, led by Col. James DeBoer, is the Army’s lead developer of fixed wing aircraft platforms. PD SAI is a subordinate organization to the Program Executive Officer for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, and Sensors (PEO IEWS), while PM Fixed Wing belongs to PEO Aviation.