- A statement from L3Harris CEO, Luke Savoie
- Types of systems this aircraft comes equipped with (ARES, ARTEMIS)
L3Harris Technologies said in an announcment on August 27th that it has flown for the first time a new U.S. Army technology demonstrator aircraft that will be capable of conducting both reconnaissance and electronic warfare. The Army’s Airborne Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare System, or ARES, aircraft will help the service modernize its airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and will feed into the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System program, which could produce an aircraft to replace the Army’s aging Guardrail ISR aircraft fleet with greater capabilities.
Luke Savoie, company president for aviation services, said in a statement, “L3Harris is helping the Army rapidly expand its ISR capabilities with ARES, our design, fabrication and integration team turned a green airframe into an initial, single sensor-capable platform with new sensing technology in six months.” The Army is also flying another technology demonstrator called Artemis which stands for Aerial Reconnaissance and Targeting Exploitation Multi-Mission Intelligence System. The service awarded a contract to Leidos in November 2019 to integrate sensors and payloads onto a Bombardier Challenger 650 jet. The ARES platform is larger and has more electrical capability and more payload capacity than Artemis, according to DeBoer.
