Paris Air Show: Variety spices up special mission aircraft

27th June 2017 - 13:00 GMT | by Grant Turnbull in Paris

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Various companies were at this year’s Paris Air Show showcasing their intelligence-gathering special mission aircraft with one theme in particular seeming to take precedent; the need to collect more types of intel from just one platform.

Traditionally, smaller special mission aircraft – based on turboprop platforms like the King Air 350 – have struggled to be so-called ‘multi-intelligence’ platforms as their size has limited what sensor payloads can be fitted and how many mission consoles are on board.

Often this has meant that a special mission aircraft can only perform a specific role, such as communications intelligence (COMINT), electronics intelligence

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Author

Grant Turnbull

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Grant Turnbull was the editor of Land Warfare International and Digital Battlespace magazines with Shephard …

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