The US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is to field a “highly modified” De Havilland Canada (DHC) Dash-8 aircraft for special mission support operations.
Seen here in its Radiant Falcon configuration for the US Army, the DHC-8 is becoming increasingly popular as a special mission platform. (Dynamic Aviation)
The command disclosed on 27 February that it is to award a sole-source contract to Virginia-based Leidos Inc. for the procurement of a single Dash 8, noting, “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.”
No details pertaining to the aircraft’s mission or configuration were revealed and the USSOCOM did not disclose a delivery date.
Leidos Inc. has previously supplied the US Army with Dash-8 aircraft modified for its Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) mission. In its ARL-Enhanced (ARL-E) configuration the aircraft is kitted out with high-resolution, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging, digital mapping, and full motion video (FMV), as well as signals intelligence (SIGINT), communications intelligence (COMINT), foliage penetrating (FOPEN) radar, ground moving target indication/synthetic aperture radar (GMTI/SAR), dismount moving target indicator (DMTI), and ground penetrating (GPEN) radar equipment.
Within this ARL-E mission, the Saturn Arch configuration is geared towards neutralising improvised explosive devices (IEDs), while the Desert Owl configuration is an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability to simultaneously conduct measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) and imagery intelligence (IMINT) missions in near all-weather conditions.
While the US Department of Defense has not stated where these Saturn Arch and Desert Owl platforms are operated, likely theatres include Afghanistan (where ‘non-combat’ support continues), East Africa (Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti is known to support the Saturn Arch programme), and South Korea.
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