The arrangement is part of the Army’s Multi-Domain Sensing System program, a basket of tech the service believes will modernize its intelligence gathering.
The Army is using technology demonstrators and a possible future prototyping effort to assess how it wants to replace its roughly 50-year-old Guardrail Common Sensor aircraft. One high-speed ISR jet has arrived in Europe to help the service carve a path forward.
Pentagon leaders need “around $10 billion” in the next pandemic aid package to cover defense contractors’ coronavirus-related costs. But it’s unclear how the hefty funding handout will square with Republican skepticism of new deficit spending.