- The United States awarded Raytheon a $197 million contract to supply seven MS-110 reconnaissance pods to the Polish Air Force, with work running through 2031.
- The MS-110 systems will expand Poland’s airborne intelligence and surveillance capability within NATO operations on the alliance’s eastern flank.
The United States has awarded Raytheon a $197 million contract to deliver MS-110 Multispectral Reconnaissance Systems to the Polish Air Force, the company announced on January 28.
According to Raytheon, an RTX business, the contract was issued by the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and covers production of seven MS-110 reconnaissance pods, aircraft integration, and engineering support. The work will be performed in Westford, Massachusetts, and is scheduled for completion by August 2031.
The MS-110 system is an advanced airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance pod designed to provide wide-area, long-range imagery collection in both day and night conditions. The system uses multispectral sensors combined with onboard processing to deliver rapid image analysis during flight operations.
“The MS-110 system brings advanced capability by pushing next-generation processing to the tactical edge to defeat camouflage and decoys in near real time,” said Dan Theisen, president of Advanced Products and Solutions. “This capability empowers the U.S. and our allies to maintain a strategic advantage in an evolving global defense landscape by bolstering survivability, responsiveness and wide area surveillance.”
Raytheon said the MS-110 integrates artificial intelligence and machine learning to process and interpret imagery at speed, reducing the time between collection and exploitation. The company stated that the system improves performance over legacy reconnaissance pods by providing common ground coverage across multiple spectral bands and expanding coverage at extended ranges.
The reconnaissance pods are compatible with a wide range of aircraft, including advanced fighter jets, maritime patrol aircraft, special mission platforms, and medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles. This flexibility allows air forces to deploy the system across different mission sets without modifying core aircraft systems.
The Polish Air Force has expanded its role in NATO intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions as the alliance increases focus on its eastern flank. The MS-110 pods will allow Polish aircraft to conduct independent wide-area surveillance missions while contributing data directly to allied networks.