Already in use on specific missions in Ukraine, Leidos' ARTEMIS is part of the service's growing fleet of data and intelligence gathering aircraft owned by US private contractors.
From the outside, the plane looks a lot like the other elegant and luxurious private jets that serve companies or billionaires and businessmen who value the comfort of flying. But inside, this plane is exclusively intended for the "working class".
It's full of IT racks and looks more like a server room than an airplane. The seats are cloth, and two consoles with monitors and computers are connected to about a dozen antennas located in the plane's hold to intercept and decipher long-range communications.
The aircraft itself, the Challenger 650, is made by Bombardier, but the SIGINT-specific adaptations are made by Virginia-based defense technology firm Leidos.
"These planes can see very far when they're operating at 12,000 meters," Mike Chagnon, Leidos Defense Group vice president, said in an interview.
The second Challenger 650 that Leidos has modified in this way for the military
To date, it is the second Challenger 650 that Leidos has modified in this way for the military, although the company is not the only one to do so. L3Harris Technologies is also developing similar data and intelligence gathering aircraft, which it calls ARES.
The Leidos and L3Harris-equipped aircraft are currently being used by the US military to establish its long-term plans for the development of new high-altitude SIGINT aircraft, a project called the High Precision Detection and Exploitation System (HADES).
"They (US military officials) want multi-layered detection capabilities from space to ground level," Chagnon said. "This is the airborne layer."
ARTEMIS, deployed in Europe. Monitoring missions of Russian forces near the borders with Ukraine, before the Russian invasion
In November 2021, the first ARTEMIS aircraft was withdrawn from a US military exercise in Arizona and deployed to Europe to be part of NATO's effort to monitor Russian forces near the Ukrainian border.
The plane flew from Arizona to Virginia, where it received some upgrades before flying to Europe, Chagnon said. "Since then, he hasn't arrived home," he emphasized.
The aircraft flies an average of six days a week for nine to 10 hours a day, Chagnon said. This type of aircraft has no weapons on board and does not fly in the so-called "contested" airspace that enters the air defense zone of the warring parties.
"We are not entering the contested environment," he said. "We're looking into the contested environment from a high altitude, just looking down from an unchallenged environment."
It should be noted that these aircraft are owned, operated and maintained by Leidos employees, not the military. But through satellites, the US military can connect to the plane's sensors from afar. Essentially, the military pays Leidos an hourly rate.
"It's good for the government and good for the country," Chagnon said. "We're responsible for keeping the aircraft in the air, and they [the military] no longer have to deal with the logistics behind it, which is sometimes the most expensive part of a government program." On the other hand, "I can turn off the faucet on them whenever I want," he continued.
Leidos has also purchased two larger Global 6500 aircraft, also made by Bombardier, which it plans to convert into SIGINT surveillance aircraft called ATHENA-R.
With competitive solutions in this project, also on the Global 6500 platform, the companies L3Harris, MAG Aerospace and Sierra Nevada also come. ATHENA-R aircraft will also be owned and operated by contractors and will be a bridge to the HADES program.
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