Report: Air Force to Buy 22 Lightly Armed Cessna Caravan Aircraft

The U.S. Air Force plans to procure 22 lightly armed variants of the Cessna Caravan aircraft to deliver to allied governments for use in surveillance missions, FlightGlobal reported Monday.

A notice posted Friday on FedBizOpps states that the Air Force wants potential vendors to supply AC-208 planes that are equipped with various weapons and sensors.

Interested companies should be able to install components such as the MX-15D electro-optical/infrared sensor of L3 Technologies‘ Wescam subsidiary; Harris‘ RF-7800M-MP multiband radio; and BAE Systems‘ Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System.

The Air Force also wants the AC-208s to include an EO/IR image down-link system and a platform that can provide mission system control, display, recording, processing and data transfer support.

The military branch will accept responses to the sources sought notice until April 16.