The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has contracted Leonardo and Thales, under a single source procurement, to deliver an integrated defensive aids system (DAS) for the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) fleet of eight Raytheon Shadow R1 special mission aircraft.
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The contract, announced on 11 September at the DSEI 2019 defence exhibition in London, is geared at protecting the Beechcraft King Air 350-derived Shadow R1 electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft from the latest-generation infrared-seeking missiles.
As noted by Leonardo, the contract will be delivered by a combined MoD/Leonardo/Thales team under a Leonardo prime systems integration contract, with the equipment being integrated onto the platform by Raytheon UK.