Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $328.5 million Foreign Military Sales contract by the U.S. government to produce IRST21 Legion-ES infrared search-and-track sensor systems for Taiwan’s Air Force.
The contract supports a recent U.S. government FMS agreement and will deliver the Legion-ES variant of Lockheed Martin’s IRST21 system, a passive long-wave infrared sensor designed to detect and track airborne targets at extended ranges, according to the company.
Lockheed Martin said the Legion-ES configuration is intended for integration on the F-16 and is designed to complement aircraft performance through an embedded and fully integrated IRST capability.
Cristin Stengel, programme director for IRST21 at Lockheed Martin, said the award represents a significant step for the system’s international adoption.
“This award marks an important milestone as Taiwan becomes the first international partner to receive the Legion-ES IRST21 configuration,” she said. “This system will bring advanced passive sensing capability to strengthen situational awareness, accelerate decision-making and support our allied air forces.”
The company stated that Legion-ES is intended to improve pilot reaction time and survivability by enabling the detection and tracking of airborne threats with high accuracy. Lockheed Martin also noted that the Legion-ES system builds on its legacy infrared search-and-track technologies, which the firm said have accumulated more than 300,000 flight hours across multiple platforms.
