Collins Aerospace has announced the completion of flight testing for its MS-110 Multispectral Airborne Reconnaissance System, marking its readiness for operational service.
Collins Aerospace, a business of RTX, has announced the completion of flight testing for its MS-110 Multispectral Airborne Reconnaissance System, marking its readiness for operational service. The MS-110 system, which features a wide area, long-range sensor suite, underwent extensive flight tests and ground activities following its first flight on a McDonnell Douglas F-16 for an undisclosed international customer in July 2022. The company is now in the process of delivering a total of 16 sensors to international Fast-Jet operators, with contractual activities underway for an additional 13 pods for three more customers.
Building on the success of the widely deployed DB-110, the MS-110 shares a common support and imagery exploitation infrastructure, allowing existing DB-110 operators to upgrade their pods to the MS-110 configuration at their own maintenance facilities. This upgrade option minimizes costs and operational downtime while enhancing the reconnaissance capabilities of these critical systems. The MS-110’s multispectral features improve intelligence analysts’ ability to extract vital information from a wide range of target sets.
“With MS-110 development and integration completed, the critical intelligence made available by the system can be rapidly rolled out to support multi-domain efforts,” said Andy Hunter, Director and General Manager of Intelligent Sensing, Collins Aerospace. “The extension and expansion of an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract with the U.S. Air Force Foreign Military Sales organization will be a major factor in accelerating production and improving system affordability,” he further added.
Collins Aerospace’s airborne reconnaissance systems have been successfully fielded and operational on various tactical fast jet platforms, including the McDonnell Douglas F-15 and F-16, as well as special mission ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) business jets. The MS-110 system is also compatible with Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as the MQ-9. Leveraging the company’s expertise in multispectral imaging (MSI) from the SYERS-2C system flown on the U-2, the MS-110 sensor brings advanced imaging capabilities to enhance intelligence gathering in diverse operational environments.
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The completion of flight testing and the imminent deployment of the MS-110 Multispectral Airborne Reconnaissance System underscore Collins Aerospace’s commitment to providing cutting-edge reconnaissance solutions for military customers. With its proven performance and multispectral imaging capabilities, the MS-110 is poised to enhance intelligence capabilities and support multi-domain operations around the world.
