Army To Retire All Of Its Turboprop Surveillance Planes By The End Of The Year
'The divesture of the AISR [aerial ISR] legacy fleet is ongoing and will continue throughout 2025,' a spokesperson for the Army's Program Executive Office for Aviation (PEO-A) confirmed to TWZ. 'The RC-12X, MC-12, and EO-5 fleets will be divested by the end of 2025. The divestment of the legacy AISR fleet has been ongoing since 2022.'
The RC-12X, also known as the Guardrail Common Sensor (GRCS), is a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air-based ISR aircraft equipped with a signals intelligence (SIGINT) package and a ventral sensor turret with electro-optical and infrared full-motion video cameras. The RC-12X is the latest in a line of Guardrail variants with steadily improving capabilities, the first of which entered service in the 1970s and were staples during the Cold War. Prior to 2022, the Army had 14 GRCS aircraft, plus five RC-12X(T) pilot trainers with no sensors fitted.
Also known as the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS), the Army's MC-12S planes first began entering service in the 2010s. The fleet is an amalgam of additional Beechcraft King Air types with a variety of sensor configurations, including still and full-motion video cameras, radar and laser imaging systems, and SIGINT suites, as you can read more about here. The bulk of the 24 EMARSS aircraft had previously supported U.S. military operations on a contractor-owned and operated basis.
It is unclear how many EO-5C Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Multifunction (ARL-M) aircraft, also known by the program name Crazy Hawk, were still in service by 2022 when the aerial ISR divestment process started. The Army had eight of the aircraft, which are based on the four-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-7, or Dash-7, in inventory at least as of 2015. Originally designated as RC-7Bs, the ARL-Ms first began entering service in the late 1990s.
The Army had previously planned to replace the EO-5Cs with RO-6A Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Enhanced (ARL-E) aircraft based on the more modern twin-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-8, or Dash-8. Just like the EMRASS fleet, a number of the ARL-Es had already been providing ISR support through private contractors before the Army acquired them. The service retired the RO-6As back in 2022.
'The AISR mission continues to use legacy aircraft until fully divested with Contractor Owned, Contractor Operated (COCO) aircraft bridging the gap until [the] High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) is operational,' the PEO-A spokesperson also told us. ' The COCO aircraft are Airborne Reconnaissance and Targeting Exploitation Multi-Mission Intelligence System (ARTEMIS), Airborne Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare System (ARES), and Army Theater Level High-Altitude Expeditionary Next-Generation ISR aircraft (ATHENA).'
The forthcoming HADES aircraft, now designated the ME-11B, as well as the ARES and ATHENA contractor-operated types, are all based on Bombardier Global 6000/6500 business jets. The ARTEMIS planes are based on Bombardier's Challenger 600 series.
The transition to business jet-based ISR platforms has been the Army's stated plan for years now. In general, compared to turboprop types, jet ISR aircraft offer increased range and speed, allowing them to reach operating areas further away, do so faster, and stay on stay on station longer. Those capabilities allow them to be more readily transferred from one area to another, as well. The added performance could be particularly valuable for future operations across the broad expanses of the Indo-Pacific region. In addition, thanks to higher operating ceilings, they can provide a better perch for sensors to 'see' from. The Army has also presented all of this as helping to reduce vulnerability to increasingly more capable threat air defenses.
The exact mix of sensors found on the ARTEMIS, ARES, and ATHENA aircraft is unclear, as is the planned configuration for the ME-11B. The HADES package will at least include Raytheon's active electronically scanned array (AESA) Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2B (ASARS-2B). ASARS-2B, work on which first began as an upgrade for the U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane, can produce synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, which are highly detailed ground maps, and has ground moving target indicator (GMTI) functionality to spot and track vehicles on the ground. GMTI data can be used for various intelligence purposes, including establishing patterns of life or targeting, as well as be overlaid on top of SAR and other imagery to help refine collection areas.
The ME-11B is also shaping up to be much more than just a traditional ISR aircraft, with its capabilities also set to include the ability to launch drones, potentially with ranges up to 1,000 miles. HADES might be able to launch electronic and cyber warfare attacks, as well.
'While HADES is expected to rapidly deploy and provide deep-sensing capabilities, the task force is learning the aircraft could provide even more capability than it initially imagined, including the ability to disable enemy space-based capabilities,' Defense News reported earlier this month, but did not elaborate.
The 'task force' referred to here is the Army's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force. Andrew Evans, the ISR Task Force's director, had spoken to Defense News and other reporters about plans for HADES and other developments at the Army Aviation Association of America's (AAAA) Mission Solutions Summit on May 15.
'We are committed to building HADES in a way that unlocks maximum value for Army and Joint forces operating anywhere on the globe, including USINDOPACOM [U.S. Indo-Pacific Command] as the priority theater,' Evans subsequently told TWZ in a statement. 'The manner in which we will interact with and affect adversarial capabilities operating in the land, sea, space, and cyber domains remains classified.'
Overall, the Army is certainly presenting HADES as a major upgrade over its existing crewed turboprop ISR aircraft, but the first of the jets are not currently expected to enter service until 2027 at the earliest. In addition, serious questions remain about what the future ME-11B fleet will ultimately offer, not least of which due to its planned size. The service has said in the past that it could buy at least 12 of the jets, and potentially as many as 14 to 16. However, reports earlier this month, citing an internal Army memo, say that number could be slashed to just six as part of a larger force structure shakeup.
Just how survivable the non-stealthy ME-11Bs would really be during a future high-end fight, such as one in the Pacific against China, remains an open question, as well. The jets still have to be able to get close enough to designated target areas to bring their sensors to bear, and available line of sight could be a further limiting factor. The aircraft also have to remain on station for at least some amount of time to gather useful data, making them a prime target. The air defense threat ecosystem continues to evolve and expand, and the U.S. Air Force has said that it could include anti-air missiles with ranges of up to 1,000 miles by 2050.
In the meantime, there continues to be significant demand across the U.S. military for aerial ISR support in hotspots where the airspace is largely permissive, especially in Africa and Latin America. There are also a variety of peacetime surveillance requirements, including on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe. Army turboprop surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft have historically played a major role in meeting these kinds of demands.
Aerial ISR has been a major component of stepped-up U.S. military support along the southern border with Mexico since President Donald Trump took office in January. U.S. Air Force RC-135V/W Rivet Joints and U-2 Dragon Ladies, and U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidons – all far higher-end platforms than the Army's turboprop ISR fleets – along with MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk drones, have been employed on border surveillance missions in recent months.
The Army's aerial ISR divestments also come at a time when U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is moving to cut its own fleets of U-28A Draco and MC-12-type turboprop ISR aircraft. SOCOM does plan to leverage the resources freed up by retiring the U-28As and the MC-12s to help field its new OA-1K Skyraider IIs, but has stressed it does not see the new light attack aircraft as direct replacements for the ISR types. This has raised separate questions about ISR capability and capacity gaps, which the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, is now notably scrutinizing.
It is worth noting that the Army's future aerial ISR vision includes a mix of other capabilities beyond crewed fixed-wing aircraft, including high-altitude balloons and very high-flying drones with extreme endurance. The service has also been investing in new types of smaller and shorter-ranged drones for more localized surveillance and reconnaissance tasks. There is also a broader move across the U.S. military to push a variety of surveillance and reconnaissance functions that have traditionally been performed by aircraft into space, with a number of at least prototype systems already in orbit.
As has been done for years, the Army could use contractors to fill any new capacity gaps. Private companies that provide aerial ISR services might seek to acquire the aircraft the Army is now divesting. The planes could also go to other U.S. government agencies, such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which operate similar types.
'The Army will scale capability solutions to match the threats and demands voiced by Army and Joint Force commanders around the world. Today we are demonstrating the ability to generate transformational sensing capability at a volume and velocity that holds our adversaries at-risk anywhere in the world, in any weather, any time,' Army ISR Task Force Director Evans also told TWZ in response to a question about concerns about future ISR capacity gaps. 'The way we deliver on that commitment in the coming years may evolve, but our approach will always remain THREAT informed and SOLDIER-focused. We will ruthlessly prioritize investments to ensure that our Soldiers have this level of support when they need it most. Lethality starts with Intelligence, and the future of our nation depends on it.'
If nothing else, the Army is now on track to see an end to an era by the close of this year with the complete retirement of its remaining RC-12X, MC-12S, and EO-5C aircraft.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
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