Army deploys first Athena-R spy plane to South Korea
The service will begin a multi-month operational assessment of the militarized Bombardier Global 6500 jet, with plans to field three similar aircraft later this year.
A photo of the US Army’s new Athena-R aircraft that deployed to South Korea this week. (L3Harris)
WASHINGTON — A new US Army spy plane deployed to South Korea this week and is slated to begin key testing to ensure it is ready for operations, according to a senior service leader.
Dubbed Athena-R — short for the Army Theater level High Altitude Expeditionary Next Airborne ISR-Radar — the service tasked MAG Air and L3Harris with integrating a suite of sensors and equipment onto two Bombardier Global 6500 business jets. As of this week, that first one is now “supporting the long-standing commitment we have to the Republic of Korea,” Andrew Evans, the director of the Army’s ISR Task Force, told Breaking Defense today.
The service will begin an operational assessment with the aircraft next week that is expected to last about four months and assess any fixes the modified spy plane might need.
“We may spend the first few months doing some adjustments and tweaks. This is our newest system, and so as with any new system, we’ll have to work out some bugs, but … we have the right experts on the ground,” Evans said.
“This will be an ongoing and iterative operational assessment with the goal of having those fixes complete in the coming months and then being in a sustainable place here by May or June, with it collecting on behalf of the US Army on a daily basis,” he added.
In the meantime, the MAG Air and L3Harris team will continue integration work on the second Athena-R, with Evans eyeing its deployment to the Indo-Pacific region later this fiscal year.
The Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is also under contract to produce two similar aircraft dubbed Athena-Sensor. Those two aircraft are also expected to be ready for deployment later this year, though it is not yet clear where the Army will send them.
“They will be offered for global allocation according to the priorities of the administration, the joint force and OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense],” Evans said.
Both Athena lines are billed as “bridging” aerial ISR assets as service leaders move out on plans to field the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES). Also centered around the Global 6500, last year the Army selected SNC to proceed with integration work on that program.
If the HADES program stays on track, the first aircraft should be ready by the end of 2026 or early 2027, and the service could ultimately acquire more than a dozen under a one-per-year buy depending on budgets and the threat analysis.
