ACS Reconnaissance Plane: The Kerfuffle Around the Shuffle (updated)

Bye, EP-3 Aries II(click to view full) The Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) is a joint US Army/ US Navy program that would replace three different reconnaissance planes used for signals interception (SIGINT), ground-looking SAR radars, and imagery intelligence (IMINT). The story of that program’s evolution over the last year is an excellent example of the kinds of issues and development challenges that face many new defense designs, even those that use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology as a starting point. On Sept 9, 2005, DID covered a major proposed change in the program, and explained the likely dynamics behind it. Now an October 10, 2005 report in Defense News has confirmed much of that analysis and added new information, while the proposed change has become a tug-of-war involving the US Army and Lockheed Martin. ERJ-145 ACS, Navy In August 2004, a Lockheed/Embraer team won an $879 million ACS contract to develop electronics and sensors fitted on Embraer’s RJ 145 regional jet. The losing team, led by Northrop Grumman, proposed designing the system based on General Dynamics’ Gulfstream 450 jet. The stakes were high, as the overall program could eventually be worth as much as $7 billion – the US Army is […]