One of the questions the Army's ISR Task Force is grappling with regard to sensing is how best to "leverage the vast proliferation of commercial satellite providers," said task force director Andrew Evans.
The sensors under development will integrate onto the Army's well-known HADES aerial ISR program, designed to conduct "deep" intelligence gathering and target tracking.
The solution starts with an outstanding portfolio of Challenger and Global aircraft, recognized as the world’s top-performing business jets.
With the prototypes, "we're able to launch from one area and very quickly get to another area that is much further away in distance. So it opens up the aperture from a mission perspective," a program leader said.
SNC started work on the RAPCON-X aircraft a year ago “in an effort to build something that the Army and DoD needs before they need it,” said Tim Harper, senior director of business development for SNC’s Mission Solutions and Technologies division.