Collins Aerospace’s ACES 5 ejection seat selected for USAF aircraft. Credit: Collins Aerospace, a Raytheon Technologies company.

Collins Aerospace has been selected by the US Air Force (USAF) to equip the F-15 fleet with its ACES 5 ejection seat.

The seats will be delivered as part of a $700m firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract.

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The sole-source contract will see the company perform delta qualification, manufacture, and deployment of the seat for the USAF’s range of aircraft.

Work will be carried out in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by October 2030.

ACES 5 is a next-generation ejection seat developed to provide better head, neck, arm and leg flail prevention, as well as a load-compensating catapult depending on the weight of the occupant.

The company said that the seat decreases overall ejection-related major injuries to less than 5% and spinal injuries to 1%.

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ACES 5 seat offers MIL-HDBK-516C safety and adheres to the requirement of the government to include qualification schedule planned within USAF programme objectives and equal or lower life cycle costs.

Collins Aerospace vice-president and general manager Heather Robertson said: “Collins Aerospace continues to leverage innovative technologies to keep aircrew safe, reduce maintenance costs, and improve operational performance.

“Our goal is to provide the best-performing ejection seat exceeding the most stringent safety requirements in the world today.

“The ACES 5 is in a class of its own and we couldn’t be more excited to begin fielding it while continuing the proud legacy of the ACES Family of Systems.”

Earlier this month, Boeing selected Collins Aerospace Systems’ NAV-4500 navigation receivers for the US Air Force’s (USAF) T-7A Red Hawk. This trainer will also be equipped with ACES 5 ejection seat.

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