Collins Aerospace has completed the flight tests of its latest airborne reconnaissance pod.
The company extensively tested the MS-110 Multispectral Airborne Reconnaissance System in a series of tests, which began last year on an F-16 fighter jet.
The tests confirmed the system’s wide area, long-range sensor suite, making it ready for deployment.
Improved Features
The MS-110 offers a greater and broader range of surveillance than previous systems, even in contested environments, the company claims.
The pod builds on the success of the widely deployed DB-110 reconnaissance pod, leveraging the multispectral imaging capabilities of the U-2 spy plane-equipped SYERS-2C.
The MS-110’s multispectral feature improves “intelligence analysts’ ability to extract vital information from a wide variety of target sets,” the company said.
It enables target detection in poor visibility and faster dissemination “via high-bandwidth datalink and Collins’ ground intelligence-sharing architecture.”
Sixteen Pods to Be Delivered
Collins is under contract to deliver 16 sensors to international customers while negotiating the delivery of an additional 13 pods with three more customers.
DB-110 customers can upgrade their systems to the MS-110 configuration at their own maintenance facilities.
“With MS-110 development and integration completed, the critical intelligence made available by the system can be rapidly rolled out to support multi-domain efforts,” Intelligent Sensing for Collins Aerospace Director Andy Hunter said.
“The extension and expansion of an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with the US Air Force Foreign Military Sales organization will be a major factor in accelerating production and improving system affordability.”
