A senior Army official is optimistic that the service’s manned Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform, known as HADES, will award contracts for sensor integration by the end of the year, with the aircraft expected to become operational within 12 to 18 months thereafter.
In an interview with Breaking Defense at last week’s Farnborough Airshow, Andrew Evans, director of the Army ISR Task Force, stated that a decision on which company will integrate their sensors onto the already-selected Bombardier Global 6500 airframe should be made by “the end of the calendar year, certainly.” He added, “We will look to accelerate that, and we believe that partnership will be very powerful for us moving forward.”
While Evans did not disclose the companies or specific capabilities under consideration, he noted that the initial sensor packages will include a Moving Target Indication capability, advanced signal intelligence, and several other components as part of HADES’ baseline configuration. He highlighted the advantage of adding hardpoints to the aircraft’s wings, allowing for mission-specific adaptations without altering the baseline setup, and mentioned that defensive capabilities could be included. “We’re looking at that with great interest as well; protecting something like this becomes very important,” he said.
Although he refrained from specifying capabilities for the hardpoints, Evans mentioned the potential for what the Army describes as “launched effects” from these points. When asked about the possibility of using the hardpoints for strike capabilities, he stated that this would be unlikely, referring to it as “a little bit of a hard line for us.”
Evans praised Bombardier, indicating that the Army is on schedule to acquire its second Global 6500 airframe by the end of the year. The decision to choose the Global 6500 was influenced by the aircraft’s growth potential to accommodate evolving sensor technology for HADES. “We are fully confident in where the OEM [original equipment manufacturer], Bombardier defense, is headed with the jet. We’re pleased with the design and believe we have a solid plan moving forward,” he said. “What I like to tell people is that HADES will likely not be configured the same way in five, 10, or 15 years.”
Manned vs. Unmanned ISR Platforms
The Army’s decision to pursue a manned ISR platform in 2024 has raised questions, particularly given the U.S. Air Force’s recent shift away from manned platforms in favor of unmanned or space-based assets.
Evans acknowledged that he frequently encounters such inquiries but dismissed suggestions that manned ISR is an outdated concept. He explained that space assets can be prohibitively expensive and that unmanned systems have their limitations. “If you consider an unmanned system, its value lies in communicating via satellite link or possibly a direct link to a ground system,” he noted. “In conditions of high RF [radio frequency] interference, we are witnessing in Ukraine that unmanned systems are often vulnerable to jamming. Therefore, what we observe in Europe today is that manned systems can provide support that unmanned systems may not be able to offer due to their susceptibility to jamming.”
He continued, “We have to balance endurance trade-offs and payload considerations with link dependencies. The Army has determined that we need a mix of assets; we can’t be entirely manned or entirely unmanned. We need the advantages of both systems.”
When asked how HADES will integrate with other services, Evans stated that the program must be certified by the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to fit into the Pentagon’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) framework before proceeding.
“I think most stakeholders in the DoD believe that HADES serves as a risk mitigator for all other investments being made,” he added. “Even as our service incorporates a range of on-orbit capabilities, a gap still exists—whether it’s a technology gap or a capacity gap—and HADES helps bridge some of those gaps.”
