Gulfstream Considers Special Mission Aircraft Requirements for USAF’s Compass Call, JSTARS Recap Programs

General Dynamics’ subsidiary Gulfstream Aerospace has begun to consider the requirements for special mission aircraft as it competes for the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System recapitalization program and Compass Call electronic attack airframe initiative, Defense News reported Monday.

“Ultimately the decision has to be made using the processes that they use for acquisition about what is the right answer, what is the right proposal,” Troy Miller, regional vice president of military sales and marketing at Gulfstream, told reporters during a Thursday briefing in Savannah, Georgia.

“We think, however, that there is a clear indication if you look at the global totality of the direction of the special missions model, that there is a major trend toward the business jet,” Miller added.

Gulfstream partnered with Northrop Grumman and L3 Technologies to offer its G550 business jet for the JSTARS program that is expected to compete with Boeing’s militarized version of 737-700 aircraft and Lockheed Martin–Bombardier team’s Global 6000 business jet’s variant.

The service branch is expected to downselect by early next year for the JSTARS program.

Gulfstream also proposed its G550 aircraft for the Air Force’s Compass Call airframe replacement program that is under protest by Bombardier and Boeing, the report added.