ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD – The U.S. Army Project Manager Aircraft Survivability Equipment (PM ASE) and Army Contract Command-New Jersey recently entered into an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin for a potential Improved Threat Detection System (ITDS) missile warning solution.

ITDS is the next generation Missile Warning and Threat Detection System. It will provide a higher resolution two color infrared sensor suite with a threat agnostic approach to aircraft survivability. ITDS is intended to field on multiple Army Aviation platforms.

ITDS is currently funded and approved for Phase 1 of the OTA effort to conduct a technology demonstration and maturation effort to evaluate vendor solutions and technical maturity. The initial technology demonstration builds on multiple “Sensor Rodeo” industry demonstration events and independent government assessments and will focus on design maturation, demonstration testing, sensor characterization and flight test, digital simulation modelling assessments, aircraft integration strategies, and technical readiness assessments. The OTA is a five-year vehicle constructed with options for Phase II and Phase III to allow for vendor down-selects, integration with additional platforms and supports a streamlined contracting vehicle to support rapid acquisition.

“This critical capability is required for Army aviation to maintain overmatch against near peer threats and enables advanced tactics through increased detection range, improved detection in clutter, and threat agnostic algorithms to rapidly respond to emerging threats and allow the execution of full spectrum multi-domain operations,” said Col. Brock Zimmerman, PM ASE.

ITDS will be a Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) conformant and Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA)-compliant system, able to operate on current Army aircraft and the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft.