L3Harris is eyeing an opportunity to equip the United Arab Emirates’ air force with a new multi-mission aircraft, pitching a development of the Bombardier 6000/6500 ultra-long-range business jet.
“They are looking for an aircraft that could do maritime surveillance, maritime patrol, anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare,” says Jason Lambert, L3Harris Integrated Mission Systems’ president, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
“We are still shaping that solution and the requirement with the [potential] customer,” he said at the Dubai air show on 17 November. “We are not at the proposal stage yet.”
However, he stresses that L3Harris is looking to establish local industry involvement “to a maximum level – not just sustainment, [but] actually in the modification work and content that we could potentially export”.
“It’s truly technology transfer and technology sharing,” he says, with further details due to be announced at the show on 18 November.
Aside from the UAE prospect, Lambert notes that L3Harris offers solutions in “four different flavours”: ISR, airborne early warning and control, electronic attack, and multi-mission. Its current offerings are based on the Global 6000/6500 and Gulfstream G550.
“There is a huge market demand, including here in the Middle East,” he says of interest in special mission-adapted large business jets. In addition to the prospective need in the UAE, that also includes possible requirements in Saudi Arabia, he indicates.
