AEC Skyline

AEC Skyline provides contract air services and critical data solutions for armed forces and public security organisations from bases in the Netherlands, at Breda International Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde.

The group has three operating companies. Skyline Aviation provides the aerial services. Skyline CDS supplies critical data solutions. S2IX is an IT specialist in secure information management, exchange and interoperability software, and joined the group in November 2025. The company was founded on 29 November 1991 and began as an aviation business at Den Helder Airport. Its Learjet then moved to Groningen Airport Eelde, which has a longer runway. In 2010 the Forum Group bought Skyline Aviation.

Skyline Aviation flies JTAC training, electronic warfare training and adversary air missions. It also offers target towing, remote sensing, calibration and testing. Its Learjet tows targets for close-in weapon system, gun and missile training, and the company has more than 25 years of practice in this work. It also makes the Missile Radar Target series of aerial targets. For remote sensing it uses manned and surrogate unmanned aircraft with sensors such as EO/IR video, LIDAR, SAR/GMTI, multispectral and hyperspectral imaging and signals intelligence. A testbed aircraft supports trials for research institutes and the military.

Customers include the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the Belgian military and, until recently, the United States Air Forces in Europe. The company won a multiyear Belgian close air support training contract in 2025. With partner Top Aces, it won an initial adversary air contract from the Royal Netherlands Air Force in 2024.

Skyline CDS covers systems integration, C4ISR and cyber work, unmanned systems and sensors, and consultancy and training. Products include datalinks, networking radios, LTE, 5G and satellite communications, cloud solutions, video encoding, geospatial information, secure roaming, and optronics, drone and counter-drone systems. The group is an official reseller for makers such as L3Harris, Haivision, Persistent Systems, Nokia, Elistair and Milrem Robotics.

Skyline Aviation is accredited by the Netherlands Military Aviation Authority under MAR-OPS 1 and 2, MAR-M and MAR 145. The group's management systems meet ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 27001:2022. It belongs to the NIDV and the Netherlands Aerospace Group. Staff are mostly former military and are vetted for security clearance.

Services

• JTAC training
• Electronic warfare training
• Adversary air
• Target towing
• Remote sensing
• Calibration and testing
• Systems integration
• C4ISR and cyber
• Unmanned systems and sensors
• Consultancy and training