Army awards Bombardier Defense HADES prototype contract

The Army last month awarded a firm fixed-price contract to Bombardier Defense for the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES), the service announced Wednesday.

The contract, awarded Dec. 12, is for one Global 6500 jet with options to buy two additional aircraft over three years, according to the announcement. The Army plans to use the business jets for aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to provide deep sensing capabilities against “peer and near-peer adversaries.” The first aircraft is scheduled to be delivered Oct. 1.

The Army included $191 million in its fiscal year 2024 budget for HADES -- one of several “operational imperatives” for the service set by Secretary Christine Wormuth that will allow soldiers to see and sense farther.

The Army began purchasing aerial ISR from industry vendors in 2020 in preparation for HADES, according to the service. These aerial technology demonstrators provide data about platform performance, sensor integration, sensor performance and data distribution to the joint force.

Col. Joe S. Minor, the project manager for Army fixed-wing aircraft, said in a statement Wednesday that HADES will operate at higher altitudes than “legacy turboprop platforms.”

“Higher altitudes equate to an ability to sense farther and more persistently into areas of interest. Deep sensing is the Army’s number-one operational imperative for the Army of 2030,” he said.