INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
WEBSITEraytheon.co.ukRichard Daniel
Chief Executive Officer, Raytheon UK
“As intelligence collection becomes
an ever more critical element in the
fight against all types of threat –
whether non-state or state actors
- the timely collection, dissemination
and exploitation of that intelligence
is crucial to the defence posture of
both the United Kingdom (UK) and its
coalition allies,” says Richard Daniel,
Chief Executive of Raytheon UK.
Daniel argues that manned
airborne intelligence surveillance and
reconnaissance (ISR) is pivotal to this
intelligence cycle – “whether tactical, in
terms of identifying real-time targets,
or more strategically – by being able
to stand off and get a very broad
intelligence picture of what is going on - as for example, delivered by the RAF’s
Sentinel R1 during Operation Ellamy.”
Raytheon UK is the principal supplier
of manned airborne ISR solutions to
the UK MOD, including five Sentinel
R1 long-range wide area battlefield
surveillance aircraft, and, ultimately,
eight Shadow R1 tactical surveillance
aircraft. Raytheon Company’s Space
and Airborne Systems business will also
provide the primary sensor on the UK’s
P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft,
which are due to arrive in the UK in
2019/20 timeframe. Under the provisions
of the October 2016 Integrated Sentinel
Support Solution contract, the Sentinel
R1 capability, which was scheduled
to be withdrawn from service in 2015,
will be extended to 2021; Shadow R1
withdrawal is timetabled for 2030.Daniel suggests that as the
array of threat types continues to
evolve and potentially escalate, the
UK and its coalition allies will require
a strategic airborne ISR capability
beyond the current life-extension
timeframe afforded for Sentinel.
“I’d like to see us really look at how
we take Sentinel forward, well into
the next decade, because it’s a unique
capability that we know the customer and
our allies require, and which continues
to prove its worth operationally. Since it
went into service back in 2008, bar about30 days, it has never been out of deployed
operations. It has also been drawn on by
other nations – we saw the request from
France in 2013 to support its operations
in Mali. We operate as part of a coalition,
and its capability will continue be in
demand, I’m sure, across the coalition.”
Daniel says that there is still
significant growth potential in the
Sentinel R1, but this will be optimised
through reconsideration of the 2021
timescale. “I think it has a huge future
ahead of it – its primary sensor still
provides great capability, and that
underpins the value of the platform.
It can perform multi-mission tasking- we’ve already seen this with the
synthetic aperture radar and ground
moving target indicator capabilities in
Operations in Afghanistan and Libya.
We’ve already postulated the integration
of additional sensors – communications,
electronic intelligence – because
while it is up in the air it may as well
be collecting this data – and there are
more complicated modifications which
would allow us to also add long-range
optics. We can then demonstrate how
this platform could evolve into a true
multi-mission capability, and how it
can truly underpin the airborne ISR
capability required by the RAF.”A CRUCIAL CONTRIBUTION TO
UK AND COALITION AIRBORNE
ISR REQUIREMENTS
“I’d like to see us really look at
how we take Sentinel forward,
well into the next decade”
CO N TAC T [email protected]