The Egyptian Air Force is investing in avionics upgrades for its Beechcraft 1900C intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) fleet, which will allow the aircraft to fly in civilian airspace over Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia.
The US Army Contracting Command is seeking sources capable of supporting and providing the modifications for the upgrades of a total of six Beechcraft aircraft.
Egypt operates some 10 1900C/D aircraft, at least four of which have been modified by Raytheon for ISR operations.
The upgrades and a new avionics suite that is expected to be installed will have to provide threshold requirements mandated in order for the aircraft to fly in the desired civil airspace under instrument flight rules (IFR).
As outlined in the US Army solicitation, new equipment for the aircraft would include VHF and HF communication radios, and transponder equipment with EHS and ADS-B: Enhanced Surveillance (EHS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) capable transponders capable of meeting the European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 1207/2011.
Other equipment includes a Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) with SBAS, such as the American Global Positioning System (GPS) or the European Galileo System. These determine the aircraft’s position and velocity around the world to a high degree of accuracy utilizing signals broadcast from a constellation of medium earth orbit satellites.
Also included are traffic and collision avoidance and terrain awareness warning systems.
The army announcement did not provide information on when the upgrades could be expected to start or complete, noting only that the sources sought had a deadline of February 5, 2021.
