PD SAI hosts Multi-Domain Sensing System Assumption of Charter

By Daniel Baldwin | 

Project Director Sensors-Aerial Intelligence (PD SAI) said farewell to Product Lead for Multi-Domain Sensing System (PdL MDSS) Tom Bentzel and welcomed his successor Eric Hughes during an Assumption of Charter ceremony held on Tuesday, here at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.

“The Army thrives on traditions of excellence, discipline, and duty, and today we reaffirm those principles as we reflect on the amazing accomplishments of Mr. Tom Bentzel,” said Julie Isaac, PD SAI, during the ceremony.

First selected to lead MDSS in March 2020, Bentzel was tasked to standup the new product office and develop the MDSS family of sensor systems. The first of these emerging systems was the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES), the Army’s next generation airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) system.

In preparation for HADES, Bentzel strategically partnered with his counterpart in Project Manager Fixed Wing (PM FW) under Program Executive Office Aviation to demonstrate and operationally deploy jet-based ISR sensing on PM FW contractor-owned, contractor-operated Airborne Reconnaissance and Targeting Multi-Mission System (ARTEMIS) and Aerial Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare System (ARES) systems.

The success of the ARTEMIS and ARES technology demonstrators led to the bridging strategy for HADES, which included the U.S. Army Theater-level High Altitude Expeditionary Next Airborne ISR Radar/Signals (ATHENA-R/S) jet platforms that were used to demonstrate the value of new and existing sensor technologies in HADES-like packages. These aerial ISR bridge systems allowed the Army to rapidly innovate and accomplish interim objectives including continuing to meet Global Force Management Allocation Plan Military requirements, transforming formations, and intelligence infrastructure to exploit HADES capability, and establishing initial quantities of trained aircrews for transition to HADES.

“Our partnership with PM Fixed Wing demonstrated the viability of the HADES concept and enabled the Army to transition away from its legacy fleet of turboprop aircraft and redirect the funding to maintain that fleet to future-ready capabilities,” Bentzel said.

Through his efforts, HADES successfully went through the required Army acquisition shaping panel and was established as a program of record in December 2023. Through the HADES program, the Army will build a fleet of aerial ISR systems with signals intelligence, synthetic aperture radar/moving target indictor, and additional built-in capabilities. The program’s first Global 6500 jet was purchased by PM FW in November 2024 and the Army expects the integrated platform to be ready by early 2027.

“We guided HADES through program initiation as a $1 billion program of record,” Bentzel said. “With our Fixed Wing partners, we developed and presented the HADES Acquisition Strategy and Validated Cost Estimate to the Army Acquisition Executive, securing his endorsement and funding across the Future Years Defense Program. HADES is a great example of how, in the Pentagon, big ideas are impossible, until they become inevitable.”

Following HADES, Bentzel was instrumental in developing the second program coming out of the MDSS family of systems, the High-Altitude Platform-Deep Sensing (HAP/DS). HAP/DS will comprise the high-altitude layer and will be a Multi-Domain Operations-capable low-signature, high-altitude platform(s) (i.e., stratospheric balloons/solar fixed wing aircraft) operating in the stratosphere that will enable penetration into highly defended threat operational areas. Under Bentzel’s leadership, PD SAI began work to mature a smaller High-Altitude Balloon (HAB), the microHAB (μHAB), which will serve as a readily available Army capability to Soldiers in the field.

“Tom, you should be incredibly proud of everything you’ve done not only in terms of the program but mentoring your team and being a great leader,” Isaac said. “You are going to be greatly missed as the Product Lead for MDSS. We are very fortunate though, as Tom passes the torch, he is passing it on to someone with over two decades of aerial ISR experience, Mr. Eric Hughes.”

During the Assumption of Charter ceremony, Bentzel received the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal before passing the charter on to Hughes. Normally, a charter is passed down from the current Product Manager to the new Product Manager. Since the ceremony was an Assumption of Charter, Hughes received the charter as the first official PdM MDSS.

As the incoming Product Manager for MDSS, Hughes brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in the MDSS mission, having already dedicated 22 years of his career to supporting, promoting, advancing, and furthering the Army aerial ISR community enterprise. He assumed responsibilities as the Deputy for PdL MDSS in February 2023 and previously served as the Deputy for Product Manager Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System.

“I am honored to serve as the next PdM MDSS and look forward to the great things we will accomplish in the multi-domain space,” Hughes said, concluding the ceremony.