Sponsored by Blighter Surveillance Systems
www.blighter.com
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02 Dec 21. UK confirms Sentinel sale to US. The United Kingdom has sold its retired fleet of Raytheon Sentinel R1 Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) wide-area ground-surveillance aircraft to the United States, it was confirmed on 30 November. Answering questions in parliament, Minister of State for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin confirmed media reports that the aircraft retired by the Royal Air Force (RAF) earlier in 2021 had been sold, reportedly for use by the US Army. He qualified his statement, however, by noting that at least one of the five unairworthy aircraft has to be returned to a flight status for the deal to be completed. “The Defence Equipment Sales Authority [DESA] has sold the retired Sentinel R1 fleet of five aircraft to a US consortium of three companies– Springfield Air, Raytheon US, and Bombardier,” Quin said. “The aircraft are not currently in an airworthy condition and the potential receipt to defence will depend upon the ability of the consortium to regenerate and fly at least one aircraft. I am withholding the value of the sale as it may prejudice commercial interests.” (Source: Janes)
02 Dec 21. Liteye and Unmanned Experts Partner to Address Drone Swarms. Unmanned Experts Inc. develops SWARM management systems, Liteye provides hardware. Liteye Systems, based in Denver Colorado, has partnered with Unmanned Experts Inc. to provide the hardware components to ruggedize the new AIR COMMONS™ – SWARM, drone swarm asset planning, management, and control system. AIR COMMONS™ SWARM technology enables command and control tasking, mission planning, and generation of a “Swarm Air Tasking Order” including resource allocation, asset-target matching, force management, and mission control. These capabilities enable US swarm commanders and tacticians to deploy overwhelming autonomous airpower faster than the enemy’s decision-making cycle. The system is designed to fully integrate Unmanned Traffic Management, Advanced Air Mobility, Air Traffic Management, and UAS utilization and provide Air Domain Awareness within a disaster response or deployed Area of Responsibility.
“Swarming autonomous systems are the next technology to be addressed to secure dominance and air superiority,” said Keven Gambold, CEO of Unmanned Experts, Inc. “AIR COMMONS has demonstrated control of 55 drones and this number continues to increase.”
“Unmanned Experts’ technology is necessary for today’s battle,” said Kenneth Geyer, CEO of Liteye, “Swarms are increasing, and adding these capabilities to friendly UAS capabilities will be vital moving forward.”
02 Dec 21. High Performance, Reliable LWIR Thermal Imaging with Teledyne FLIR Tau 2 Series. The Tau 2 series offers 40+ variants of the most reliable and rugged longwave infrared (LWIR) thermal camera module. Equipped with a simple optical interface and common commercial interfaces, integration with the Tau 2 and new Tau 2+ is seamless.
LWIR Thermal Camera Integration Made Easy
Teledyne FLIR has you covered with high performance and reliable longwave infrared (LWIR) Tau 2 series thermal camera modules. Common interfaces and access to a US-based Technical Services team reduce development risk, development cost, and shorten your time to market. If you are developing with Tau 2, we can help.
With an unmatched combination of features and reliability, the Tau 2 and the increased sensitivity Tau 2+ are well suited for integration in demanding applications including UAVs, unmanned applications, handheld imagers, security cameras, maritime cameras, and thermal sights. Integration is seamless with common optical, mechanical, and electrical interfaces and the most lens options available on the market. See what
30 Nov 21. Liteye Announces First Spyglass 3-D Radar Customer and Full Production. Liteye Systems, based in Denver Colorado, announced the US Army will be the first customer to field the new Spyglass 3D Radar as part of a multi-mission / multi-domain defense solution. The Spyglass 3D Radar is designed and manufactured by Numerica Corporation, based in Ft. Collins Colorado.
“This technology is a pivotal move forward in addressing emerging UAS and ground threats,” said Kenneth Geyer, CEO and Co-Founder of Liteye Systems. “The need is urgent, and the threat continues to increase in terms of risks to life and mission.”
Liteye announced that production orders are now being accepted and delivery will begin the second quarter of 2022 with the US military taking priority deliveries.
“Spyglass was born out of our first-hand experience with gaps in the short-range radar market,” Nate Knight, Vice President of Air and Missile Defense at Numerica, said. “The rapidly-growing autonomous drone threat presented an opportunity to turn our attention to building a new radar from the ground up that would leverage our decades of experience solving critical air and missile defense problems and applying our proven radar processing and tracking technologies in new ways.”
Spyglass is designed to detect ground threats and track small, autonomous, UAS beyond three and a half kilometers with precise measurements to support a range of mitigation techniques. With a high degree of configurability and out-of-the-box support for distributed operations, Spyglass has been built with embedded C2 and AI software to enable broad-area autonomous sensor networks and seamless integration into layered defense systems.
Spyglass advantages include:
- Simultaneous Search & Track
- Adaptive Resource Management
- Electronic Protection
- Automatic Target Classification
- See farther + react faster
Liteye’s broader C-sUAS solutions can be layered with multiple effectors and battle management systems to Detect, Track, Identify and Defeat, threats operating in the Air, on the Ground, on the Surface, and in the Electromagnetic Spectrum. These solutions can be configured for customized Mission Platforms; fixed/semi-fixed, light vehicle/man-portable, mobile, and unmanned/uncrewed robotic vehicles.
The Liteye services team provides 24/7 reach-back support, training, and system updates to ensure that the systems remain effective against the threats that are continuously increasing in complexity. (Source: UAS VISION)
01 Dec 21. NASA Expands its Commercial Data Acquisition Program with Airbus. NASA has expanded the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program (CSDAP) to include Airbus as the first radar data provider to NASA’s community of researchers and scientists for evaluation to determine the utility for advancing NASA’s science and application goals. Airbus will provide them with a comprehensive catalog of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Earth observation data products to help address various research challenges.
The CSDAP strives to identify, evaluate and acquire data from commercial sources that support NASA’s Earth science research and application activities. The Radar Constellation will offer unmatched geometric accuracy, with high temporal and spatial resolution to provide precise information on any point on Earth – independent of cloud cover and weather conditions.
“We are honored to provide our unique radar datasets and services to the NASA research community to support their activities”, said François Lombard, Head of Intelligence business at Airbus Defence and Space. “We are looking forward to seeing how this will support the research work of some of the top-minded scientists in the world.”
Radar data provides unique value to various applications such as: monitoring drift ice in regions without daylight, detecting surface movement information in oil and gas fields, monitoring ship traffic, and providing detection and identification of objects.
30 Nov 21. DSTG, DEWC Services team up to develop new IR capability. A strategic partnership has been established to support the development of advanced infrared camera capability for defence applications.
Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) and DEWC Services have teamed up to jointly develop a new infrared (IR) camera capability into field trials for electro-optic (EO) countermeasures.
As part of the collaboration, referred to as the ‘IIR Surrogate project’, representatives from the Electronic Warfare Operations (EWO) branch at DSTG will work alongside graduate engineers from DEWC Services, leveraging its experience providing EW and ISR operation and technical services to the ADF and defence industry.
“The ultimate aim is to build a sovereign EW capability within industry,” Dr Miro Dubovinsky from the DSTG said.
“The IIR surrogate project will contribute to this by developing a ground-based dual-band imager capability for detecting and tracking aircraft via their emissions in the infrared and visible spectrum.
“The effectiveness of electro-optic (EO) countermeasures designed to disrupt imager tracking can then be assessed during countermeasures field trials.”
Specifically, the project will involve the assessment of pre-existing IR camera software, which could form the basis for integrating a next-generation camera into the system for future EO countermeasures trials.
The capability is also expected to incorporate a standard camera for visible tracking of platforms and dispensable countermeasures during trials.
The sensor is built with a 640 x 512-pixel focal plane array sensitive to the mid-wave IR spectrum.
Efisio Mancini, discipline leader for Electro-Optical Sensors and Systems at DSTG, has tasked the DEWC Services graduate engineers with building a custom software application to interface with the new camera to acquire image data.
“They conducted an initial assessment of the existing camera and its software to gain an understanding of how the code has been implemented,” Mancini said.
“The documented code highlighted areas for potential improvement. In fact, they have now begun applying that knowledge to develop interfacing and tracking software for the new camera.
“Tracking is done via a Simulink model that follows a four-step process: detection of objects, associating objects with a track index, tracking of an object, and track logic of a primary track for guidance. The model has a similar structure for both the visible and infrared tracking.”
DEWC Services CEO Allan Dundas said the IIR surrogate project would provide graduate engineers with an opportunity to contribute to the advancement of warfighter survivability.
“When our graduates get to go to DSTG and have hands-on experience in the countermeasures domain, they carry out work alongside highly experienced defence scientists and get further mentoring,” Dundas commented.
“We are turning these graduate engineers into passionate EW practitioners and ultimately helping the Australian Defence Force address the skills shortage.
“This is what our company is passionate about, using its EW expertise to support the ADF and ensure that those who put their lives at risk will have the best chance of success and returning home safely.” (Source: Defence Connect)
30 Nov 21. Photonis Defense Launches TacFusion. Photonis Defense is proud to release the TacFusion, the newest handheld binocular combining low light camera core and thermal imaging sensor. Built and developed in partnership with integrators, the TacFusion is equipped with day/night, thermal and fusion capabilities to detect threats or missing persons regardless of environmental and light conditions. With its multiple view modes and four times digital zoom capability; the TacFusion enables long-range detection, recognition, and identification up to 2 miles during day and night operations. The device provides connectivity that includes Wi-Fi, GPS, time-stamped and real-time video streaming allowing prompt communication and sharing urgent information from the incident scene. This binocular is user friendly; the users can operate it directly, mount it to any vehicle or surveillance system or control remotely via mobile app. The TacFusion is built to perform complicated tasks under adverse conditions with simplified options to enable users to intuitively use the device. (Source: PR Newswire)
25 Nov 21. Teledyne FLIR Introduces Neutrino SX8 Mid-Wavelength Infrared Camera Module and Four Neutrino IS Series Models with Integrated Continuous Zoom Lenses. With High Operating Temperature (HOT) Focal Plane Array (FPA) Technology for Faster Imaging and Multiple Integrated Continuous Zoom (CZ) Lens Options, the Neutrino® Portfolio Offers Superior Performance for Integration within Airborne, Unmanned, C-UAS, Security, Surveillance, and Targeting Systems
Teledyne FLIR, part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY), today introduced the Neutrino SX8 mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) camera module and four additional Neutrino IS Series models designed for integrated solutions requiring HD MWIR imagery with size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP+C) constraints for commercial, industrial, defense original equipment manufacturers (OEM), and system integrators.
Based on Teledyne FLIR HOT FPA technology, the Neutrino SX8 offers high performance, 1280×1024 HD MWIR imagery for ruggedized products requiring long life, low power consumption, and quiet, low vibration operation. The SX8 and the Neutrino IS series models are ideal for integration with small gimbals, airframes, handheld devices, security cameras, targeting devices, and asset monitoring applications.
Reduced Time-to-Market and Development Risk
The latest additions to the Neutrino MWIR camera portfolio continue to provide shortened time-to-market and reduced project risk with off-the-shelf design and delivery. Teledyne FLIR also provides highly qualified technical services teams for integration support and expertise throughout the development and design cycle. All the cameras and solutions in the Neutrino series are classified under US Department of Commerce jurisdiction as EAR 6A003.b.4.a and are not subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Neutrino IS products include a Teledyne FLIR CZ lens integrated with a Neutrino SWaP Series camera module (VGA or SXGA). All four models using the Neutrino LC and two models using the Neutrino SX8 provide crisp, long-range MWIR imaging. The purpose-designed, factory-integrated CZ lenses and MWIR camera modules provide performance, cost, schedule, and risk benefits unmatchable by other camera or lens suppliers.
To learn more about the entire Neutrino family of MWIR camera modules, including the Neutrino SWaP, Neutrino Performance, and Neutrino IS series, visit www.teledyneflir.com/neutrino.
About Teledyne FLIR
Teledyne FLIR, a Teledyne Technologies company, is a world leader in intelligent sensing solutions for defense and industrial applications with approximately 4,000 employees worldwide. Founded in 1978, the company creates advanced technologies to help professionals make better, faster decisions that save lives and livelihoods. For more information, please visit www.teledyneflir.com or follow @flir.
About Teledyne Technologies
Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated digital imaging products and software, instrumentation, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne’s operations are primarily located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western and Northern Europe. For more information, visit Teledyne’s website at www.teledyne.com. (Source: Defence Connect)
24 Nov 21. US Army to work with satellite radar imagery provider ICEYE. The U.S. Army will work with radar satellite imagery provider ICEYE to understand how that technology can be integrated into current and future Army missions and technologies. Based in Finland, ICEYE operates the world’s largest fleet of commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. Unlike the traditional electro-optical sensors military and intelligence agencies use to scan the Earth from space, SAR uses radar to create high-resolution imagery of the Earth’s surface. Because SAR isn’t dependent on visibility, it can be used to produce imagery any time of day or night. It also has the distinct advantage of being able to “see” through cloud cover, something that hinders electro-optical imagery collection. ICEYE will collaborate with the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Technical Center through a cooperative research and development agreement, or CRADA, a tool that allows the government to explore commercial capabilities without financial commitments.
“The U.S Army is looking for affordable and versatile SAR and other advanced sensor technology to enhance its many systems and missions. High-quality, frequent-revisit commercial SAR is particularly important to us because it enables day-night, all-weather imaging and complements national satellite systems,” said Col. Matt Anderson, SMDC’s Space Directorate leader in a Nov. 18 announcement.
Under the CRADA, the Army and ICEYE will explore SAR imagery tasking, uplink, downlink, image processing and dissemination in support of Army and Department of Defense requirements. A major focus will be reducing the latency between SAR satellites and Army shooters. The Army will also work on interfacing with the satellites through its Common Ground Terminal and the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node now in development.
“It’s our privilege to be the U.S. Army’s mission partner in this cooperative R&D effort,” said ICEYE U.S. President Eric Jensen. “We look forward to working closely with SMDTC as we bring ICEYE’s first-of-its-kind capability to a variety of U.S. Army experiments and demonstrations.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
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Blighter Surveillance Systems is a world-leading designer and manufacturer of best-in-class electronic-scanning ground-based radars, surveillance solutions and Counter-UAS systems. Blighter’s solid-state micro-Doppler products are deployed in more than 35 countries across the globe, delivering consistent all-weather security protection and wide area surveillance along borders, coastlines, at military bases and across critical infrastructure such as airports, oil and gas facilities and palaces. Blighter radars are also used to protect manoeuvre force missions when deployed on military land vehicles and trailers, and its world-beating multi-mode radar represents a great leap in threat detection technology and affordability for use in a variety of scenarios.
The Blighter range of radar products are used for detecting a variety of threats, from individuals on foot to land vehicles, boats, drones and low-flying aircraft at ranges of up to 32 km. Blighter Surveillance Systems employs 40 people and is located near Cambridge, UK, where it designs, produces and markets its range of unique patented solid-state radars. Blighter prides itself on being an engineer-led business committed to providing cost-effective and flexible solutions across the defence, critical infrastructure and national security markets.
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