Finland selects Sierra Nevada Corporation for new surveillance bizjets
The Finnish Border Guard announced the service selected Sierra Nevada Corporation to deliver two Challenger 650 surveillance jets
Finland has selected Bombardier Challenger 650 outfitted with SNC’s RAPCON-X capability for the Finnish Border Guard’s MVX surveillance jet program. The contract, which was signed earlier this week, includes two modified bizjets with deliveries set to take place in 2026 and 2027. With this procurement, Finland is set to become the newest European ISR bizjet operator, marking yet another European country to significantly upgrade its airborne surveillance capabilities over the last few years. Exemplified by Sweden procuring a third GlobalEye jet earlier this week as well, European militaries are increasingly investing in their airborne ISR and AEW&C capabilities, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As described in this previous post, modified bizjets have become an attractive platform for these missions.
The two new bizjets will replace the aging Dornier 228 aircraft of the Finnish Border Guard. The two turboprop surveillance aircraft entered service in 1995 and are equipped with, among other sensors, an EO/IR sensor, a maritime surveillance radar, and side-looking airborne radars. The aircraft are used for maritime surveillance and border protection missions as well as environmental damage detection. The two Dornier 228 aircraft underwent two main upgrade cycles. The first was in 2009 when the onboard sensors were upgraded and the second was in 2017 when the avionics and communication systems were modernized. Two years later in 2019, the Finnish Border Guard started a preliminary market research for a potential replacement of the Dornier 228s.
After this preliminary research, it was decided that the Finnish Border Guard required a new, more capable platform before their aging turboprop aircraft reached the end of their 30-year lifespan. To meet this requirement, the service officially launched its MVX program and initiated the selection process. The program’s name is inspired by the tradition of the Finnish Border Guard’s aircraft registrations. Their first aircraft was registered as OH-MVA and since then, almost all of the Finnish Border Guard's aircraft have been registered in alphabetical order. The current Dornier aircraft are registered as OH-MVN and OH-MVO. Since the specific type and registrations of the future aircraft were unknown, the service named the replacement process the MVX program. The two new jets will be registered OH-MVX and OH-MVY. It was decided to take a bigger leap forward in the registrations to represent the big step into the new era for aviation of the Finnish Border Guard.
In 2020, a year after the start of the program, the Finnish Border Guard identified potential aircraft suppliers. Out of the original 22 bidders, nine were invited to proceed to the next stage of the selection process in 2022. In that same year, the Finnish Border Guard already decided that their future surveillance aircraft would be a bizjet-based platform. In April 2022, two months after Russia started its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the budget of the MVX program was increased from 60 to 163 million euros (175M USD). A year later, the Finnish Border Guard started advanced negotiations and trials with four companies: the Canadese Field Aerospace, L3Harris, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and the Swedish ST Airborne Systems. An evaluation team conducted test flights on Bombardier Challenger 650, Dassault Falcon 200LXS, and Cessna Citation Longitude bizjets and assessed proposed simulators, maintenance equipment, and sensors. After about six months of delays, caused by ‘‘additional evaluations’’, SNC’s bid of their modified Challenger 650 bizjet based on their RAPCON-X design was selected.
Similar to the Dornier 228’s mission, the new bizjets will be tasked with the surveillance of Finland’s land and sea borders, search and rescue missions, Baltic Sea patrols and marine environmental damage detection. In addition to these ISR roles, the jets will also be capable of conducting medical evacuation flights. SNC’s RAPCON-X modification package allows the interior to be rapidly reconfigured for this, and other, mission sets. The new bizjet-based platform offers significant capability increases for the Finnish Border Guard. Most notable are the increased endurance, especially compared to the Dornier’s 3.5-hour endurance, and the operating altitude of the modified Challenger 650 jets. The higher altitude allows the surveillance jets to monitor further into restricted airspace, particularly inside Russia along Finland’s eastern border. While the specific sensor suite is not publicly known, the bizjets will most likely be equipped with SIGINT sensors, a maritime surveillance radar that is capable of SAR imaging, and an EO/IR sensor. Other sensors that have been mentioned in official documents include a side-looking airborne radar and a VIS line scanner for high-resolution imaging.
This new contract is not the first time Challenger bizjets have turned into surveillance jets. Since 1999, Denmark has operated a small fleet of Challenger 604 jets for maritime surveillance missions. Various contractors for the U.S. government operate(d) Challenger jets for maritime patrol and other ISR missions as well. Tracked above the Middle East, Africa and (increasingly) throughout the Indo-Pacific region, these modified bizjets have established a strong footprint in the world of (contractor) airborne ISR.
Conclusion
The increasingly poor availability of the aging Dornier 228s of the Finnish Border Guard necessitated a replacement program before they reached the end of their lifespan. Initially plagued by delays, the war in Ukraine reprioritized the program and increased funding minimised (the impact of) the delays. SNC’s winning bid of their modified Challenger 650 will significantly increase the capabilities of Finland’s Border Guard, strengthening the nation’s territorial integrity and search-and-rescue capabilities. With this procurement, Finland is set to become the newest European ISR bizjet operator, adding to the growing number of surveillance bizjets flying above the continent. It also highlights the global trend of ISR bizjets replacing older platforms amid heightened security threats in an increasingly unstable world.
PS: if you know the N-numbers (or other details) of the two bizets, please let me know!
Thank you
Thank you to the Finnish government for choosing a bizjet-based platform and thank you for reading this post! As always, feel free to reach out with your thoughts, questions and/or suggestions for future posts as well. If you have information or photos, you can always contact me via DMs (@bizjetsofwar on all platforms) and/or send an email (see the About page). You will always stay anonymous and the information/photos will not be shared without explicit approval, but please do not send information you are not allowed to share.