ISR & AirborneIntelligence.

It depends almost entirely on whether the aircraft already exists and whether the sensor is already certified on the type. A contractor-owned arrangement using an airframe and mission fit that are already flying can be operational in months. A program that acquires an aircraft, integrates a first-of-type sensor and builds a ground segment runs in years, because the airworthiness approval and export licensing sit on the critical path rather than the installation work.

You do. Full sortie data is retained under client data ownership protocols with no third-party access, and the archive stays yours. This is worth settling in the contract rather than assuming: on a service arrangement the question of who holds the imagery, who may access it and what happens to the archive at contract end is exactly where partner nations get caught out.

Yes, and that is the end state we design toward. Programs run as contractor-owned and contractor-operated at the start because it is the fastest way to get an aircraft over the area, then move to government-owned with our support, then to full transfer as your aircrew, maintenance organization and airworthiness structure mature. The transfer plan belongs in the first conversation, not the last one.

Fuel and engine reserves first, then crew, then the mission system. A twin burns roughly twice the fuel of a single and carries two engine overhaul reserves rather than one, which is why the King Air costs materially more per hour than the PC-12 or the Caravan. Beyond the airframe, the largest variable is whether you are paying for a contractor crew on rotation or sustaining your own.

Both. Foreign Military Sale runs government-to-government through the U.S. system and buys you political insulation and established case management at the cost of time. Direct Commercial Sale contracts us directly under a State Department export license and is faster, but you carry the acquisition management burden yourself. ITAR applies in full either way — DCS is not a route around export control.

That depends entirely on which ownership model the program was built on, which is why the question belongs at the start. Under a pure contractor-owned arrangement, the aircraft and crews leave with us and you are where you started. Under government-owned or a transfer program, the asset and the trained people stay. We will tell you plainly which one you are buying.

Enough to establish a pattern rather than take snapshots. Intelligence value in this work comes from repeated observation of the same area over time, so a small number of hours flown consistently against the same requirement is worth far more than a larger number flown sporadically. The right figure falls out of the tasking cycle and the number of orbits you need to hold simultaneously, and it is one of the first things a capability assessment establishes.

At minimum: airfield access with a reliable turbine fuel supply, secure parking for the aircraft, a secure room for the ground station with conditioned power and cooling, and a point of contact with authority to task the aircraft. Personnel depends on the ownership model — under a contractor-operated arrangement we bring crews and maintainers; under a transfer program you provide the trainees from day one, because they are the whole point.