The Spanish Ministry of Defence will equip the EF-18 with 80 Thales Scorpion® Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems (HMCS). These HMCS will be installed in the aircraft during the course of 2016 and 2017, once the operational qualification phase and air-toair (A2A) and air-to-ground (A2G) tests have been completed.
Scorpion® is a ‘force multiplier’ system offering full colour symbol (navigation, intelligence, combat, etc.) for both night time and daytime missions, in addition to target cueing in potentially degraded visual environments, therefore easily allowing target designation and allocation of points of interest with the aircraft’s sensors. Scorpion® is fully interchangeable between helmets/pilots as it is installed directly over standard helmets, allowing the total amount of equipment necessary for the fleet to be reduced, thus favouring maintenance and reducing life-cycle costs.
Thales will be responsible for the viability study, testing phase, integration with test aircraft, qualification support and integration in the fleet. Thales will also be responsible for the development and production of the specific Scorpion® configuration for the Spanish EF-18 including ejection safety analysis. The qualification phase includes interoperability with the IRIS-T missile and the daytime/ night-time-imaging pod for cueing lightening targets.
About Thales:
Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 62,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14 billion in 2015. With over 22,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its exceptional international footprint allows it to work closely with its customers all over the world.