Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments

www.oxleygroup.com

Oxley Group Ltd

Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.

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10 Jun 10. Raytheon Company’s hyperspectral imaging sensor known as ARTEMIS is being prepared for a first-of-its-kind tactical military role by the Air Force Space Command. The company’s Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer has successfully completed its one-year experimental mission aboard the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Tactical Satellite-3. Based on the success of that mission, Raytheon has been notified that the Air Force Space Command will take control of TacSat-3 with the intent to use ARTEMIS in an operational capacity.
“The ARTEMIS hyperspectral imager gives military commanders an important new advantage in the asymmetric battlefield,” said Bill Hart, vice president for Raytheon Space Systems. “ARTEMIS can detect various man-made and natural materials, which adds a fundamentally new capability for the DoD.”
Unlike visible imagers, hyperspectral sensors capture light across a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, providing unprecedented spectral detail. That spectral information produces a distinct “signature,” which can be compared against the spectral signatures of known objects to rapidly identify potential areas of interest.
The ARTEMIS hyperspectral imager combines spectral information with geo-location coordinates in an easy-to-read map. This information is then sent directly to troops on the ground in near real time.
“Air Force Space Command looks forward to taking ownership of the TacSat-3 ARTEMIS system,” said Lt. Col. Ryan Pendleton, Air Force Space Command, Chief, Operationally Responsive Space Integration. “We plan to operationalize the system as soon as possible to provide direct benefit to warfighters.”
TacSat-3 originated as part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s operationally responsive space initiative, which seeks to give field commanders flexible, affordable options for obtaining real-time tactical surveillance data from space. Aided by the ORS Office, and led by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the TacSat-3 program was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of developing and launching a military payload within extremely tight schedule and budget constraints.
“TacSat-3 has been a pathfinder to explore concepts of operation for future ORS systems and demonstrates how great things can be achieved on a small budget and in a short time,” said Dr. Peter Wegner, director of the Pentagon’s ORS Office. “It has also demonstrated the utility of hyperspectral information to benefit soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines around the world.”
Raytheon is discussing with several government customers opportunities for rapidly deploying additional hyperspectral space sensors. “Based on our experience on TacSat-3, we’re ready to build operatio