Platforms & Payloads

Platforms.

Alpha Federal is platform-agnostic: we select, configure, modify and operate the aircraft and sensor suite that matches your requirement, budget and operating environment — including an airframe you already own. These are the aircraft we most often field, and what each is actually good for.

A twin-turboprop holding on a wet taxiway at dawn, backlit

Platform-agnostic by design

The airframe follows
the requirement.

Not the other way round. We have no vendor preference to protect and no inventory to move, so the aircraft on this page are a starting point rather than a product line.

Fixed-wing ISR

Fixed-wing

King Air 350 / 350ER

Long endurance, multi-sensor, pressurized cabin for high-altitude operations.

Fixed-wing

Pilatus PC-12

Versatile, austere runway capable, lower operating cost per flight hour.

Fixed-wing

Cessna 208 Caravan

Maximum accessibility, minimal infrastructure requirement.

Compare

Side by side.

Fixed-wing ISR platforms
Attribute	King Air 350 / 350ER	Pilatus PC-12	Cessna 208 Caravan
Maximum range	2,690 nm (4,982 km)	1,889 nm (3,498 km)	912 nm (1,689 km)
Maximum cruise speed	303 ktas (561 km/h)	290 kt (537 km/h)	185 ktas (343 km/h)
Take-off distance	4,057 ft (1,237 m)	2,485 ft (757 m)	1,399 ft (426 m)
Maximum payload	3,545 lb (1,608 kg)	2,236 lb (1,014 kg)	3,532 lb (1,602 kg)
Maximum take-off weight	16,500 lb (7,484 kg)	10,450 lb (4,740 kg)	8,807 lb (3,995 kg)
Best fit	Long endurance, multi-sensor, pressurized for high-altitude work	Austere-runway capable, lower cost per flight hour	Maximum accessibility, minimal infrastructure

Published airframe figures from each manufacturer. Take-off distance is not published on a common basis across the three — Textron gives a take-off field length for the King Air and a ground roll for the Caravan, Pilatus gives a distance over a 50 ft obstacle — so the figures rank the types correctly but are not directly subtractable. Each aircraft page states its own basis. What any of them does with a sensor turret, operator station and downlink aboard is a separate question, answered on the same pages.

Any airframe

These three are where we start, not where we stop.

The aircraft above are the ones we most often configure, because they cover most partner-nation ISR requirements at sensible cost. They are not a catalog.

Alpha Federal will modify, integrate and operate the aircraft the requirement calls for — including one you already own. If your air force already flies a type, has the maintenance line for it and has crews current on it, putting the mission system on that airframe is usually cheaper and always faster to sustain than introducing a new type alongside it.

That is what platform-agnostic actually means here. The platform follows the requirement, and we have no vendor preference to protect.

Mission system integration: Sensor turret, operator stations, downlink and recording onto the airframe of choice
Customer-owned aircraft: Mission fit onto an aircraft your force already operates and sustains
Auxiliary fuel: Endurance extension where the sortie length requires it
Ground segment: Matched ground station and downlink, fixed or deployable