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Indra will equip the Spanish Army’s 18 Tiger MKIII helicopters with next-generation mission and electronic defense systems under new contracts with OCCAR (Organisation for joint Armament Cooperation) worth €90 million. This will allow the Army to operate under unpredictable and sophisticated threat scenarios expected in the future.
The current version of the Spanish Tiger helicopter has proven its operational capability in difficult theaters. Now, with its evolution to the MKIII version ordered by OCCAR in March 2022, it will be prepared to face new threats that incorporate advance guidance systems, more sophisticated, sensitive and difficult-to-detect that the enemy will use to prevent it from accessing areas of interest, thus jeopardizing its security.
To guarantee its superiority and dominance in every operation, Indra will equip the Spanish MKIII Tiger with state-of-the-art digital solutions for self-protection Electronic Warfare Systems (EWS) and a modern tactical mission system (SPC2), which will begin flying in 2030. Indra will also provide the whole MKIII fleet, including Spain and France, with the Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF) system for a total of 82 helicopters.
“Once again, Indra demonstrates an extraordinary capacity to develop next-generation systems, with 100% Spanish technology, thanks to its extensive operational experience, the commitment to the development of critical systems, and a strong spirit of collaboration with clients, companies, research centers and universities across the continent, which are key to its contribution to the definitive consolidation of European Defense,” said Indra’s CEO, Ignacio Mataix.
The self-protection suite EWS that Indra will implement on the Tiger MKIII will feature a sophisticated radar warning receiver system, the ALR-400FD Full Digital, which offers direct spectrum digitization with impressive signal processing capability in order to detect surveillance systems and targeting sensors before they lock onto the platform. This plays a critical role as it incorporates the EW Manager function, responsible for managing and integrating all the aircraft’s self-protection elements and activating countermeasures to automatically neutralize any ground-to-air or air-to-air attack.
The new version of the Tiger will thus share technology with the aircraft fleet in more than 15 defense armed forces for which Indra is already implementing this type of systems to guarantee their self-protection. These include the NH-90, AS-532, CH-47F and CH-53 helicopters, the A400M and C-295 transport aircraft, Gulfstream G-505 mission aircraft as well as the F-18 fighter jet, among others.
Indra will also integrate its IFF solution in the Spanish and French Tiger MKIIII fleet. This will allow both the identification of the platform itself to third parties and the interrogation of other aircraft in order to classify them as friend or foe, thanks to the CIT-25A combined interrogator/transponder system. The equipment is complemented by elements such as the remote control box, the control matrix and a Mode 5 crypto-computer, a clear modernization in comparison to current systems of this type.
The integration also includes US Department of Defense AIMS certification in order to be able to operate in all types of international scenarios, a prerequisite for IFFs operating with the new Mode 5 Identification within NATO.
Indra’s tactical mission system (SPC2) will enable interoperability of the helicopter with the command and control to provide Spanish Army commanders and pilots with a digitalized view of the battlefield in real time in the various theaters of operations. The helicopter will have the capability to relay and synchronize tactical information from different platforms through various radios and data links, correlating, fusing, and routing this data with the tactical information collected by the helicopter’s various sensors. The ultimate goal is to facilitate the pilots’ decision-making by reducing uncertainty and ensuring a perfect execution of the operation, with total coordination that ensures agility and precision and increases the chances of success.
