AW&ST:
Germany to Buy Three Global 6000s for Sigint Platform
Germany is to purchase a trio of Bombardier Global 6000 business jets for €75 million ($86 million) to serve the military’s signals intelligence (sigint) mission.
The aircraft will fulfill Germany’s Pegasus requirement, created by the retirement of the German Navy’s Breguet Atlantic surveillance platform in 2010 and the subsequent cancellation of the platforms that were due to replace it—namely, the EuroHawk derivative of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance UAV and more recently the proposed use of the MQ-4 Triton, the naval version of the Global Hawk.
Berlin announced in January that it was opting for a manned platform after national studies concluded that using Triton would result in Germany not meeting NATO demands for initial operations in 2025.
German industry will now install the Airbus-developed Hensoldt Integrated Signal Intelligence System (ISIS) onto the Global 6000 aircraft.
“From 2025 onward, the Bundeswehr will again have the capability for airborne wide-ranging reconnaissance,” German defense officials state, adding, “since this aircraft is already being flown in the Air Force, there will be synergy effects in maintenance, training and the procurement of spare parts.”