US Army awards special mission Dash 8 contract

[Zarvan]

Seen here in its Radiant Falcon configuration for the US Army, the DHC-8 is becoming increasingly popular as a special mission platform in place of the smaller King Air. Source: Dynamic Aviation
The US Army is procuring six de Havilland Canada DHC-8-315 (Dash 8) special mission aircraft in the 'Saturn Arch' and 'Desert Owl' configurations, the Department of Defense (DoD) disclosed on 7 April.

Six aircraft will be delivered to the army by 17 July under a USD39.2 million contract being awarded to Dynamic Aviation Group, according to the notification. But the announcement did not specify how many of the six aircraft would be Saturn Arch and how many Desert Owl.

The DHC-8 is one of several platform types the US Army uses to conduct its Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) mission. The service is understood to have a requirement for nine DHC-8-300-series aircraft to be configured to the ARL-Enhanced (ARL-E) standard (one of which will serve as a trainer).

In this ARL-E configuration the aircraft is kitted out with high-resolution electro-optical-infrared (EO/IR) imaging, digital mapping, and full motion video (FMV), as well as signals intelligence (SIGINT), communications intelligence (COMINT), foliage penetrating (FOPEN) radar, ground moving target indication/synthetic aperture radar (GMTI/SAR), dismount moving target indicator (DMTI), and ground penetrating (GPEN) radar equipment. Its six operator work stations will be Distributed Common Ground System - Army (DCGS-A) compliant.

Within this ARL-E mission, the Saturn Arch configuration is geared towards neutralising improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The programme began in 2010 with the aim of removing the IED threat from Afghanistan. The capability was the responsibility of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency until late 2013, when it was transferred over to the US Army Intelligence and Security Command. The army operated this configuration aboard King Air aircraft in Afghanistan under the auspices of Task Force ODIN-E (Observe, Detect, Identify, and Neutralize - Enhanced).

Also first fielded in 2010, Desert Owl is an ISR capability to simultaneously conduct measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) and imagery intelligence (IMINT) missions in near all-weather conditions. As with the Saturn Arch, the Desert Owl is geared primarily towards the counter-IED mission and was also based on the King Air platform when it was first introduced.

While the DoD contract notification does not state where these Saturn Arch and Desert Owl platforms might be operated, likely theatres include Afghanistan (where 'non combat' support continues), East Africa (Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti is known to support the Saturn Arch programme), and South Korea.
US Army awards special mission Dash 8 contract - IHS Jane's 360

 

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