SPECIAL MISSIONS AIRCRAFT MILITARY
The Shadow entered service in 2009. Its
mission system was designed and tested by
Raytheon UK’s Airborne Solutions division.
According to Hvizd, as a smaller aircraft with
a shorter range than Sentinel, the Shadow
is a little more flexible for manoeuvring at
lower altitudes, which enables it to interrogate
signals in a slightly different way. Hvizd did not
detail what systems are fitted to Shadow or
how they differ from those on the Sentinel. AIR
International understands the Shadow system
supports special forces more specifically, but
not exclusively, in UK operations.Overseer
In addition to its range of advanced sensors,
Raytheon has also developed an open-
architecture airborne mission management
system known as Overseer. Hvizd claims
the system builds on the success of the
Sentinel and Shadow programmes, but is
designed to integrate with other ISR systems
and interoperate with a range of information
exploitation systems.
He said: “The Overseer mission system is
the heart of our architecture. More and more
of our users are looking to have open flexible
systems. Our customers are not looking to
hire a single company for the next 40 years;they want to be able to take advantage of
technology that becomes available, integrate
that technology from a number of sources,
and then be able to enhance their solutions
without necessarily having to totally re-
architect them.”
Hvizd stressed that Overseer is not platform-
centric and Raytheon will tailor the solution to
an individual customer’s requirement: “We are
not focused on any single platform, but we
look at the platform as a mechanism to carry
an actionable intelligence system around. We
have relationships with many of the prime
contractors, from small tactical aircraft to
larger business jets, and we really seek to size
a solution that best serves the customer’s
requirements.”Future business
Hvizd said he expects single digit, but
significant growth in the ISR special mission
aircraft market over the next couple of
years at the least: “Right now we’re not only
involved in the Sentinel programme; we have
another production programme in which
Raytheon is configuring a Gulfstream 550 with
mission systems for an unspecified customer,
and we’re in active discussion with two other
countries who each have similar architecturesfor their unique needs. One of the things
we see is that each country has very
distinct needs for things such as indigenous
participation, so we need to get local content
into the architecture.”
Hvizd also says Raytheon is working with
Bombardier to develop an ISR solution based
on the Global 6000 for a couple of customers.
As far as further sales are concerned, he
points to the Middle East, where he says the
company has a key relationship with a partner
nation in the region; but he also points to Asia,
where Raytheon has active conversations
underway, and to the United States, where the
discussions involve customised architectures:
“In the USA, if you look at the programmes
of record, there really isn’t one similar to the
requirements of the UK’s Sentinel.”
In addition, Hvizd said Raytheon has
a significant interest in maritime ISR and
noted that the company is studying how
it can enter that sector. He said Raytheon
is looking at ways to integrate a maritime
capability in its own synthetic aperture
radar and ground moving target indication
solutions, and further integrate those into
various platforms that serve in the maritime
environment, utilising both the King Air
and business jet platforms.Raytheon Special Missions Aircraft
Full spectrum ISR: