A recent solicitation (late June) on the Federal Business Opportunities website revealed that the US Army is planning to convert a number of Quick Reaction Capability (QRC) special mission aircraft to the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS) standard.
The contract is to be offered to L3 Communications in Greenville, Texas and covers the modification of 13 government-owned QRC platforms including Liberty Project Aircraft (LPA), Constant Hawk-Afghanistan (CH-A) aircraft, and Tactical Operations-Light Detection and Ranging (TACPOC-LiDAR) aircraft. The contract will last 36 months from the contract signature and is divided into one baseline agreement plus two options. The baseline agreement covers the conversion of seven aircraft, option one covers up to four aircraft, and option two covers conversion of two aircraft. No proposed contract date or value for the proposed agreement was given in the solicitation.
The EMARSS system is a King Air 350ER aircraft equipped with state-of-the-art equipment including: electro-optic/infra-red (EO/IR) sensor, communications intelligence collection system, an aerial precision geolocation system, line-of-sight tactical and beyond line-of-site communications suites, two Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) workstations, and a self protection suite.
These technologies allow for a wide range of essential services. It is classified as an airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (AISR) system that provides the ability to detect, locate, classify/identify, and track surface targets in day/night and near-all-weather conditions with timeliness and accuracy.