30 May 12. Cassidian is developing innovative solutions to protect ships of the Canadian Navy against asymmetric laser-based threats. Under the designation LOCATES(Laser Optical Countermeasures and Surveillance Against Threat Environment Scenarios), the Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), based in Valcartier/Québec awarded Cassidian a contract in 2011 to apply new technologies to detect and counter laser-based threats such as laser-beamrider missiles in harbours and littoral waters. Now, the Critical Design Review has been achieved allowing the hardware development and integration of a demonstrator system which will be field-tested in July 2012 until the second half of 2013. The programme reacts to increasing threats of laser range finders, laser designators and laser-guided weapons which are widely distributed and easy to operate. Navy ships are particularly vulnerable in a littoral environment where attacks are difficult to be detected without sufficient pre-warning time. Therefore, LOCATES aims at the development of a detection and tracking capability together with a reliable laser countermeasure system. In close cooperation between Cassidian and DRDC, the programme will include technologies developed by DRDC and Cassidian’s experience in the production of laser-based self-protection systems.
31 May 12. Luciad, the market leader in high performance visualization for Situational Awareness applications announced its latest release of LuciadMobile: V2012.0. First in the industry, LuciadMobile™ enables Soldiers in the Field and First Responders to perform mobile terrain analysis using the data available on a mobile device, both in online and offline environments. Users can assess vulnerability in any situation, and as a result improve the command execution, and security. LuciadMobile V2012.0 offers the ability to access, update, and send back information and intelligence in both online and offline environments. The following capabilities are examples, which demonstrate LuciadMobile’s value for optimal usage in Defense, Homeland Security, First Responders and Civilian field operations. (Source: ASD Network)
30 May 12. Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC (RTSC), a subsidiary of Raytheon Company, recently unveiled its Light Armoured Vehicle Reconnaissance Surveillance System (LRSS) prototype to the Canadian Army in Ottawa, Ontario. Raytheon designed the LRSS to fit into the Canadian Army’s Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV)-III to provide improved flexibility allowing on-the-move intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The innovative design permits the LAV-III to create high-fidelity actionable information at the point of collection inside the vehicle — and report digital ISR information directly to the base commander. The ability to obtain critical information in real time can improve operator effectiveness and reduce workload. “Raytheon believes that on-the-move reconnaissance and surveillance is a game changer for the Canadian Army,” stated Rudolph Lewis, RTSC Depot Support Systems product line director. “This, coupled with the ability to conduct on-board imagery exploitation and to receive auto-cueing information from unmanned aerial vehicles and unattended ground sensors, provides the Canadian Army with unprecedented mission flexibility.” The LRSS acts as a “smart node” in the overall Canadian Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance enterprise. It works with off-board sensors from UAVs and unattended ground sensors, in both an LAV-III-mounted configuration or dismounted configuration using tripods. Raytheon has teamed with SRI Sarnoff on the integration of the LRSS for the Canadian Army to provide enhanced 3-D immersive situational awareness and Command, Control, Communication and Computers (C4) ISR. SRI Sarnoff is a technology leader in real-time video processing, manipulation and salient data distribution, even at very low bitrates. “Our real-time video processi