SELEX Galileo has been awarded a $9.2 M contract from TKC Aerospace Inc. to upgrade the Customs and Border Protection C-550 Citation Tracker Aircraft with its Vixen 500E intercept radar and associated mission management system. This contract is for the first two radars and mission management systems, with options for additional systems to upgrade the remainder of the fleet.

The Vixen 500E Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radar is a compact and versatile radar system intended to deliver real time situational awareness of the Air-Air and Air-Surface arenas. It comprises two major LRUs: A modern processor/receiver and a state-of-the-art AESA antenna. In addition to the intercept radar, under this contract SELEX Galileo will provide the mission management system that integrates the aircraft’s sensors and allows the crew to control and display information critical to mission success.

According to Patrick Geraghty, executive vice president radar systems for SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems US Inc., “This upgrade program will not only improve the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the C-550 Citation fleet, but it will lower life cycle support costs, primarily due to the order-of-magnitude of improvement in system reliability compared with equivalent conventional radars. This contract confirms E-scan technology as a mission critical asset in highly demanding, long endurance, surveillance and intercept missions.