WASHINGTON — The Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced today it has purchased another Bombardier Global 6500 aircraft intended to be transformed into the first non-prototype aircraft for the Army’s High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) program of record.
The purchase, which occurred in December, signals that SNC is ahead of schedule in its delivery of the HADES aircraft, per a company release. The release did not, however, say how far ahead of schedule the company is, nor did SNC respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. Hades is meant to be the service’s next-gen high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft.
“The move not only solidifies SNC’s commitment to advancing next-generation aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (A-ISR),” the company release read. “SNC’s proactive aircraft procurement mitigates risk of potential future disruptions to the program, pulls development schedules left, advances supplemental type certificate (STC) milestones and accelerates delivery.”
SNC was named lead integrator for HADES after winning a 12-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity Army contract worth up to nearly $1 billion two years ago.
Though it is not clear from the company’s release when the first non-prototype will be delivered to the Army, SNC said the first prototype is scheduled to be delivered some time this year. The service last spring said that it may cut its HADES buy from 12 aircraft to just six due to the rearranging of priorities spurred by the Army Transformation Initiative, Breaking Defense previously reported.
During an October interview with Brig. Gen. David Phillips, then-Capability Program Executive for Aviation, he declined to comment on the status of the decision to cut the number of HADES aircraft, but said it would ultimately depend on what the Army tells the CPE to procure. The CPE did not respond to a request for comment today on the decision to potentially slim the HADES fleet by the time of publication.
SNC’s announcement comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump have called on industry to increase their production volume and speed up delivery timelines, while also prohibiting such companies from making share repurchases and paying dividends to shareholders unless they make investments to modernize weapons production facilities.
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Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has also previously threatened to do less business with defense primes unless they begin operating more efficiently. And in today’s SNC announcement, a different Army leader said the company is setting a “new standard” with its HADES delivery timeline.
“The Secretary of the Army has challenged the industrial base to take risks, invest private capital and innovate on behalf of the nation,” said Andrew Evans, director of strategy and transformation within the Army G-2. “SNC has unequivocally answered that call. SNC’s willingness to ‘lean-forward’ on the HADES program sets a new standard for how industry can partner with the Army to deliver next-generation capabilities at the pace of need.”