An early business jet effort was the integration of the Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) system onto a Bombardier Global Express to create the Royal Air Force (RAF) Sentinel R1 aircraft. L3Harris’ Greenville, Texas modification center designed, developed, and integrated the ASTOR system onto the aircraft. The facility then received approval from UK’s Defence Procurement Agency in January 2004 to self-certify the Sentinel’s modifications and airborne systems and complete flight testing. The RAF Sentinel provided a long-range all weather theater surveillance and target acquisition system capable of detecting moving, fixed and static targets. The aircraft first saw service in Afghanistan as part of coalition forces following the 9/11 attacks. It flew 32,300 hours conducting approximately 4,870 sorties during its service life.
The Airborne Stand-off Radar (ASTOR) is a new British capability for operations over and around the battlefield. It is to form the UK equivalent to the US E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS). ASTOR is to provide a long-range all-weather theatre surveillance and target acquisition system capable of detecting moving, fixed and static targets. It is designed to meet a joint Army and RAF requirement. The production contract was signed by Raytheon Systems in December 1999 for the supply of five air-platforms, eight ground stations, and contractor logistic support. The principal elements of ASTOR are the Bombardier Global Express aircraft, to be know as Sentinel R1 in RAF service, and the Raytheon ASARS-2 side looking airborne radar used on the U-2.
The Sentinel is one example of L3Harris’ high-quality, low-risk, cost-effective solutions for a diverse range of business jet platforms and missions. The company has more than 70 years of aircraft missionization experience with more than 15,000 modified aircraft delivered, and more than 50 business jet ISR aircraft on contract or delivered. This experience includes more than 800,000 hours of experience designing, building, integrating, testing and certifying Bombardier aircraft mission systems. L3Harris’ onsite Multi-Sensor Test Facility enables rapid multi-discipline sensor certifications and calibrations, saving time and budget by reducing schedule, cost and flight hours for system validation.
Delivering proven, high-quality, low-risk, cost-effective solutions for a diverse range of business jet (bizjet) platforms and missions. L3Harris leads the industry in business jet missionization, with over 70 years of experience designing mission-tailored solutions on platforms of all sizes. The company’s business jet experience spans more than 10 manufacturers’ aircraft, including Boeing, Bombardier, Dassault and Gulfstream. The company offer a one-stop solution for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft engineering, complex system integration, aircraft modification, flight testing and certification, Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) and electronic warfare (EW) platform solutions and services on diverse military and civil aircraft platforms.
