Hanscom awards contract to improve deployable landing system capabilities

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Hanscom Air Force Base recently awarded a $18,400,000 contract to Thales Defense & Security, Inc., for two deployable instrument landing systems. D-ILS will improve the Air Force's ability to provide precision approach and landing guidance in austere conditions.

The D-ILS will be able to provide guidance down to Category 1 weather minimums, 200 feet above the ground and a half-mile visibility, at airfields and expeditionary installations worldwide.

In addition to the units, the contract work also includes associated materials such as training, technical manuals, spares and contractor support.

Program officials here at Hanscom used the Office of Secretary of Defense Foreign Comparative Test program to pursue this technology, as market research indicated that an existing system could not only meet requirements but would save the Air Force time and money.

According to the OSD Comparative Technology Office website, "The purpose of the FCT program is to test items and technologies of our allies and other friendly nations that have a high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) in order to satisfy valid defense requirements more quickly and economically."

The D-ILS team saw how they could use that to their advantage by pursuing an established system.

"This was a win-win scenario where the D-ILS program reaped benefits from previously developed technology that meets our warfighter requirements without investing development funds in a shrinking defense budget," said Col. Joe Leonard, Aerospace Management Systems Division senior materiel leader.

The mobile landing systems will have three main capabilities:  the ability to convert a bare base into an operating airfield; the ability to augment an existing airfield; and the ability to temporarily restore ILS capabilities at damaged airfields during humanitarian operations.

"The system will improve the reliability, maintainability and sustainability compared to current Air Force systems," said Hans Hilterman, D-ILS deputy lead engineer. "It will also offer remote control and maintenance capabilities to reduce the resources required for on-site maintenance."

The system was chosen because of its proven track record.

"The results of the FCT tests on the Thales D-ILS clearly showed it meets our requirements," said Lauren Paradiso, Hanscom D-ILS deputy program manager. "The system incorporates a COTS-based mature technology that has been developed and fielded in a number of configurations for military customers such as the Qatari Air Force, Pakistani Air Force and Italian Ministry of Defense."

The current contract work is anticipated to be complete by July 2018. As part of that work, the production-ready units will undergo a comprehensive qualification test as a precursor to a production and deployment, or Milestone C, decision.

"Using the FCT has been extremely helpful and paved the way for follow-on production of systems to meet user needs," said Paradiso.