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2025-03-31 Science & Technology
ME-11B Official Designation Of Army's New Intelligence Gathering Business Jets
[TWZ] The sensor-packed ME-11Bs will fly faster, farther, and higher than the Army's current turboprop intel aircraft and could also launch drones.

The U.S. Army has formally given the designation ME-11B to its forthcoming High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) intelligence-gathering aircraft. The modified Bombardier Global 6500 business jets will have extensive sensors suites that include the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2B (ASARS-2B) and could have the ability to launch drones.

Last August, the Army awarded the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) a contract valued at just under $1 billion to modify Global 6500s into the HADES configuration, as well as provide other support and services. Work under that contract was suspended until January of this year due to an ultimately unsuccessful protest by L3Harris, which had competed for the HADES deal as part of a team with Leidos and MAG Aerospace. Bombardier separately delivered the first Global 6500 for conversion in November 2024.

“The military mission design series designation of ME-11B was assigned to the Army’s future aerial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, which will be based on the Bombardier Global 6500 platform,” a spokesperson for the Army’s Program Executive Office for Aviation (PEO Aviation) confirmed to TWZ earlier this week.

The designation here reflects that there is another militarized Global 6500 already in service with the U.S. armed forces, the U.S. Air Force’s E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) aircraft. It’s also worth noting here that the aircraft in the Air Force’s initial fleet of E-11As were based on older Bombardier BD-700 and Global 6000 business jets. The BACN jets provide highly specialized communications capabilities that allow for the rapid transfer of data between various aerial platforms, as well as forces on land and at sea, which you can read more about here.
Posted by Skidmark 2025-03-31 02:12|| || Front Page|| [11150 views ]  Top

#1  Who knew ?
Posted by Besoeker 2025-03-31 06:18||   2025-03-31 06:18|| Front Page Top

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