The U.S. government awarded Lockheed Martin a $328.5 million Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract for the production of IRST21® Legion-ES® sensor systems. This contract supports the recent U.S. government FMS agreement for the Taiwan Air Force.
IRST21 is Lockheed Martin’s next-generation infrared search-and-track sensor capability, a long-wave infrared system that passively detects and tracks airborne targets at extended ranges. The Legion-ES configuration is designed for the F-16 to complement aircraft performance.
“This award marks an important milestone as Taiwan becomes the first international partner to receive the Legion-ES IRST21 configuration,” said Cristin Stengel, program director, Lockheed Martin IRST21. “This system will bring advanced passive sensing capability to strengthen situational awareness, accelerate decision-making and support our allied air forces.”
The low-profile Legion-ES builds on Lockheed Martin’s legacy IRST systems, which have more than 300,000 flight hours combined.
