U.S. Customs & Border Protection awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) a second $47M contract to expand the Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) fleet, bringing total MEA aircraft orders to four in 2020.
SNC was awarded a second $46,997,170 contract for two additional MEA by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). This is unprecedented for a single year. SNC has been the prime systems engineer and integrator for the MEA fleet since 2009.
“SNC is extremely proud of our close partnership with Customs and Border Protection,” said Tim Owings, executive vice president of SNC’s Integrated Mission Systems business area. “We are honored by CBP’s continued trust in our team’s ability to provide these special mission aircraft and the opportunity to support its mission of protecting the United States’ border.”
The MEA aircraft is a fully certified, highly-missionized version of the King Air 350, equipped with a sophisticated array of active and passive sensors, technical collection equipment and satellite communications capabilities. It provides integrated multi-role special mission services to CBP and is capable of carrying out a wide range of missions. This twin turboprop aircraft platform leverages more than 15 years of SNC’s King Air modification and integration heritage and 800,000+ hours of operational experience on special mission platforms for a wide array of government and military customers. Variants of the company’s SNC Scorpion® aircraft currently enable special operations and border security missions worldwide, including the U.S.
To date, SNC has provided a fleet of 20 other King Air 350 aircraft used to safeguard the nation as part of CBP’s coordinated aviation and maritime law enforcement efforts. All four additional MEA aircraft are expected to be delivered in 2022. SNC will continue to perform work covered by this contract from its facilities in Hagerstown, Maryland.