WASHINGTON — The US Army’s new spy plane program remains on track, but if lawmakers delay passing a 2027 budget, the service will not be able to move into production as planned, a senior defense official warned.
“We actually are still completely on cost with the program and completely on schedule, which is somewhat rare across the department,” Andrew Evans, the director for the Strategy & Transformation Office inside the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence shop (G-2), told Breaking Defense.
“However, the CR [continuing resolution], which is out of our hands, does complicate that. So next year at this time, will I be able to say the same thing? I don’t know,” he added on the sidelines of the Annual Association of the US Army conference.
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So far, the Army is moving out with development of three High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) prototypes — Bombardier Global 6500 jets that Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is outfitting with different tech packages. The first prototype, according to Evans, is slated to be delivered around the January 2027 timeframe and will be used in an operational demonstration to ensure that “everything from aperture to analytics is all connecting.” After that it will be made available to Pentagon leaders to decide how to use the collection asset.
“They will tell us what their priority is, and the asset will fly to that area and begin collection operations,” Evans said.
The second prototype should be delivered roughly six months later, and the third one, which is “significantly advanced from the first two,” is slated for delivery in 2028.
But after those three prototypes, the Army had been eyeing HADES production aircraft and planned to ink a deal with SNC around the start of 2027. However, lawmakers have not approved a fiscal 2027 defense spending bill and are funding the government on a continuing resolution through early December. A spending bill could take even longer given the upcoming midterm elections and Pentagon plans to work with lawmakers to reconfigure the spending request.
If those talks and budget slip further into 2027 or the defense leaders want to pull HADES funding for other priorities, then a production contract could be put on ice.
“We are ready to move in on the ‘27 [plan to] award a production contract for HADES; We cannot do that … until we clear a CR,” Evans said.
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