ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., 5 Dec. 2010. The Boeing Co. Defense, Space, and Security segment in Huntsville, Ala., will design and build a U.S. Army airborne intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system called the enhanced medium altitude reconnaissance and surveillance system (EMARSS) under terms of an $88.1 million contract awarded Friday.
EMARSS will fly aboard the Hawker Beechcraft Corp. Kingair 350ER twin-engine turboprop aircraft during Army tactical missions to provide persistent surveillance and reconnaissance to detect, locate, classify, identify, and track surface targets in daylight, at night, and in near-all-weather conditions.
The system has an electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) full-motion video (FMV) sensor, a communications intelligence (COMINT) collection system, an aerial precision guidance (APG) system, line-of-site (LOS) tactical and beyond line-of-site (LOS/BLOS) communications suites, two operator workstations, and a self-protection suite. Awarding the contract were officials of the Army Communications-Electronics Command Contracting Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
The two-year full-scale-development contract calls for Boeing to build four engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) EMARSS units with an option for two more, giving the contract a total of six low-rate initial production units. Boeing will do the work in Ridley Park, Pa.; Wichita, Kan.; Hudson, N.H.; and Salt Lake City, and should be finished in late 2012.
Ultimately the EMARSS program is expected to field 36 aircraft equipped with its multi-sensor suite ISR suite. Boeing must compete for a full-rate production contact to build the remaining systems. The EMARSS system primarily to fulfill an urgent need for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems to support fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space, and Security at www.boeing.com/bds, Hawker Beechcraft at www.hawkerbeechcraft.com, or the CECOM Contracting Center at www.monmouth.army.mil/cecom/acq.
