Maritime Airborne Surveillance and Control (MASC)

The programme:  Providing Replacement for the Airborne Early Warning and Control capability for the future, currently provided achieved by the Sea King Mk7s, based at RNAS Culdrose.

Lockheed Martin UK has been awarded a contract by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to study the potential of using Merlin helicopters as a platform for both maritime airborne early warning and command and control.  Lockheed Martin are leading a three-way team which includes Thales UK and AgustaWestland. The overall study includes two more contracts which sees AgustaWestland and Thales UK each leading similar teams looking at other airframe and mission system options.

All three contracts are part of the Maritime Airborne Surveillance and Control (MASC) programme.  MASC is the third component of the UK’s future carrier strike capability and will work with the future aircraft carrier (CVF) and the Joint Strike Fighter Combat Aircraft to provide airborne early warning and command and control capabilities.

Lockheed Martin are also investigating enhanced Rotary Wing solutions where our approach is to propose the best value Rotary Wing solution to meet the User Requirement Document as an Airborne Early Warning and Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance asset, covering force protection, littoral manoeuvre and force projection.

Our MASC solution will offer the right team with the expertise to deliver a through life, cost effective solution - on time and within budget, minimising development and acquisition programme size by re-use of existing Merlin Capability Sustainment Programme (MCSP) structures, processes and personnel, together with an approach that builds upon efficient and effective interaction with all relevant customer communities ensuring easier retention of buy-in from all customer sets.

We bring a wealth of expertise from our various International helicopter programmes, including Merlin Mk1, together with our AEW/ISTAR programmes.

Links:

• Merlin HM MK1
• Merlin Training System (MTS)
• Merlin Capability Sustainment Plus (MCSP) and Future Merlin