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10 Sep 19. Marlborough Communications Limited (MCL) has expanded its surveillance offering with the addition of the innovative new TM-K9 canine camera and video transmitter system, launching at DSEI 2019. Based on three generations of technological evolution, the TM-K9 system is a tactical modular solution with high definition (HD) and thermal camera capability.
Mounted on to the back of a canine, the TM-K9 solution can operate in non-line of sight scenarios and offers a range of up to 500m in the most cluttered of radio frequency (RF) environments. The innovative new capability provides a video link from the canine back to its handler and provides a function for the handler to deliver directions to the canine based on the live video feed.
The camera is housed within a robust enclosure and mounted on a spring loaded arm, meaning the canine can travel at speed through confined spaces without causing damage to the system. The TM-K9 system is complemented by the TM-RX fully portable digital receiver, which offers a three-hour battery power supply.
Shane Knight, Managing Director at MCL said, “We’re delighted to be the sole UK supplier of the latest generation of canine camera and video technology. In direct response to customer demands, the rugged digital receiver is radio channel configurable to meet requirements for RF flexibility, making the system ideal for use in tactical operations.
“Military dogs offer a huge support in combat environments and this technology will provide vital live stream intelligence to forces on the ground.”
The TM-RX can also be used as part of a digital mesh radio network, allowing encoded video to be exchanged and shared between several camera nodes simultaneously, as well as record the footage to a memory card.
The TM-K9 system will be available to view at the DSEI exhibition on stand S6 220.
10 Sep 19. Chess Dynamics, the UK-based advanced integrated systems and technologies company, has developed two new payload-agnostic, modular solutions to the military requirement for increased flexibility and cost efficiency in land-based surveillance and target acquisition operations.
Both capabilities, based on Chess’s Hawkeye Land Systems and with TRL9 status, are in use with initial defence customers and will be showcased to the wider defence sector for the first time at DSEI 2019.
The Modular Integrated Pod System (MIPS) is a self-contained, vehicle-mounted platform enabling quick and easy changeover of different surveillance and target acquisition payloads including radar, electro-optical tracking systems and counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS).
Providing a squadron or company the same capability that would otherwise be obtained from three or four separate systems or vehicles, the mission-configurable system provides 360˚ surveillance coverage and is interoperable with supporting systems including weapons and ammunition. Its ‘clip-on, clip-off’ system ensures ease of use by operators when changing payload, limiting the need for specialist equipment training and reduces downtime for maintenance.
Chess’s MIPS unit contains all necessary system life-support elements including power supply, connections, processing, network connectivity, displays and controls. This functionality enables the system to be left unmanned where tactically required.
The system is currently in operational service with a NATO member nation and is undergoing further test and evaluation in a host of different vehicles types and fitted with a wide variety of mission-specific payloads.
David Eldridge, Sales Director at Chess, said: “MIPS has been developed in response to the rapidly evolving operational environment faced by many defence organisations, where there is a need for flexible resources that can be rapidly deployed, as well as the need to maximise cost-efficiencies. Armies are simultaneously involved in multiple operations worldwide, responding to new agile threats, without access to persistent, long-range surveillance and target acquisition assets at the F Echelon. From a surveillance perspective, troops can be hindered by each payload being fixed to either specific vehicles or locations – limiting responsiveness and, should the vehicle or technology require maintenance, the whole capability is out of action. MIPS provides ground forces with a flexible, modular solution enabling them to quickly and easily modify vehicles for specific tactical deployment.”
Additionally, Chess has developed an ISO container-based surveillance and target acquisition solution, where a fixed or semi-permanent base is required. Similarly compatible with multiple payloads including radar, electro optical tracking, or C-UAS capability, the ISO container and its common equipment can be easily transported, enabling rapid deployment of a chosen payload in areas previously more challenging to establish a fixed position. The unit provides a protective, habitable and environmentally-controlled space and contains an integrated interior control and display unit allowing the user to monitor and track targets from inside, even in extreme environmental conditions.
Chess announced in March this year that it had been awarded a contract through its US partner Liteye to equip a number of ISO containers with integrated C-UAS systems for the US Department of Defense (DoD), as part of a solution to meet threats at US borders and airports, and to protect critical internal infrastructure.
David Eldridge commented: “The containerised solution has been designed to improve survivability of forces, critical installations and assets, while offering the flexibility to tactically deploy capabilities in areas that may have been harder to maintain due to the need to station manpower in remote locations. Our continued supply of this capability to the US DoD, in this context for C-UAS operations, clearly demonstrates the confidence and trust that customers have in the solution to effectively detect, track, identify and defeat rapidly evolving threats.”
These capabilities are on display and available for demonstration in the Outdoor Area (Stand OD18).
11 Sep 19. The sensor solution provider HENSOLDT presents at this year’s Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition in London a new variant of its successful SharpEyeTM naval radar series. The Mk 5 radar is the first open array 80W SharpEyeTM navigation radar especially aimed at the smaller military vessels that require full capability with limited space availability. The new radar is on display on the HENSOLDT booth, No. S3-200.
“SharpEyeTM provides the user with the most capable radar in its class that allows exceptional performance against small targets in clutter with minimal user adjustment”, says Russell Gould, Managing Director of HENSOLDT UK, formerly Kelvin Hughes. “Kelvin Hughes SharpEyeTM radars have been fitted to more than 30 leading naval and Coast Guard services worldwide, and the Mk 5 makes this technology available to a wider range of naval and Coast Guard vessels.”
SharpEyeTM is a state-of-the-art coherent, pulse Doppler X Band radar for navigation and situational awareness. It translates world-class radar technology such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) power transistor technology into superior detection performance of small targets in heavy clutter, thus improving mission success and survivability of military and Coast Guard vessels.
10 Sep 19. HENSOLDT’s SETAS vision system for armoured vehicles successfully demonstrated at British Army Armoured Center Bovington. Sensor solution provider HENSOLDT successfully carried out the initial fitting and operating activities of its newly developed electro-optical vision system SETAS (See-through Armour System) with the British Army’s Armoured Trials and Development Unit (ATDU) in Bovington. This activity was to capture, understand and then minimise potential operating issues in the future. Fitted on a ‘Warrior’ Infantry Fighting Vehicle, SETAS demonstrated its potential to give full situational awareness in the daylight hours to the vehicle crew while staying safely inside.
SETAS is being presented at this year’s Defence & Security Equipment International DSEi in London on the HENSOLDT booth, No. S3-200, and on an ‘Eagle 6×6’ Armoured vehicle on the stand of General Dynamics, No. S9-200.
“SETAS gives Armoured vehicle crews exceptional visibility of their surroundings”, says Andreas Hülle, Managing Director of HENSOLDT Optronics. “The user can stay in safety within the vehicle but with a high degree of situational awareness of his surrounding environment outside. Particularly in urban environment this capability is a key enabler for rapid decision making and as such platform survivability”.
The SETAS Integrated Camera Models houses two types of powerful sensors, very high resolution visual cameras (1 or 2) and two uncooled thermal imager module (UCM). The visual sensor is capable of the recognition of a pedestrian at a distance of some 300 metres. This observation capability can be further enhanced with the integration of other sensors, such as acoustic sniper detection sensors, laser warner system and a hemispherical camera to cover the area directly above the vehicle.
Using a head mounted display as HMI, a crew member inside can virtually “see through” the armour achieving the same amount of orientation as observing when ‘heads up”. Intelligent software algorithms are automatically alerting the crew if a potentially threatening movement is detected within the 360° around the vehicle.
SETAS can easily be fitted as a stand-alone system. However, greater advantage of the system can be achieved if the SETAS is connected to the vehicle’s network or Battle Management System, displaying external data to each crew member individually. SETAS will be available from 2020.
10 Sep 19. CONTROP Precision Technologies Ltd. – a company specializing in the field of electro-optics and IR defense and homeland security solutions – will reveal for the first time the SIGHT Box, a new configuration of the SIGHT payload in which all the sensors are contained within an enclosure, at DSEI 2019.
The SIGHT concept is yet another solution provided by CONTROP, designed to enhance mission effectiveness whether in air defence, land mobile RWS or naval RWS applications. Made to withstand all environmental needs of a combat vehicle – sand, dust, heat, intense movement and physical shock – the payload enables the shooter to obtain and maintain an accurate and stabilized line-of-sight to the target, even in the harshest of conditions.
The SIGHT Box features all the imaging capabilities of the other products in the SIGHT Family, now enclosed in a box frame. These include high-performance Thermal Imaging (TI) camera using a Cooled or Uncooled IR detector with a continuous zoom lens; High Definition (HD) Color Day camera with a continuous zoom lens; and an Eyesafe Laser Range Finder (ELRF). A picture-in-picture function provides simultaneous day and thermal imaging videos.
As well as making the off-the-shelf SIGHT Box available in three camera configurations – 25E, 15E and 10E – CONTROP offers RWS and AFV integrators/manufactures the option of incorporating specific types and specifications of camera, according to their particular requirements, making this an ideal and tailored-made solution.
“We continue to listen attentively to the needs of our customers around the world and their end users,” says Mr. Ra’anan Shelach, CONTROP’s VP Marketing. “Our flexibility to satisfy particular requirements or specifications enables us to deliver cost-effective solutions that do not compromise the system’s operational capabilities. The SIGHT Box is just one example of this.”
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Blighter® Surveillance Systems (BSS) is a UK-based electronic-scanning radar and sensor solution provider delivering an integrated multi-sensor package to systems integrators comprising the Blighter electronic-scanning radars, cameras, thermal imagers, trackers and software solutions. Blighter radars combine patented solid-state Passive Electronic Scanning Array (PESA) technology with advanced Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) and Doppler processing to provide a robust and persistent surveillance capability. Blighter Surveillance Systems is a Plextek Group company, a leading British design house and technology innovator, and is based at Great Chesterford on the outskirts of Cambridge, England.
The Blighter electronic-scanning (e-scan) FMCW Doppler ground surveillance radar (GSR) is a unique patented product that provides robust intruder detection capabilities under the most difficult terrain and weather conditions. With no mechanical moving parts and 100% solid-state design, the Blighter radar family of products are extremely reliable and robust and require no routine maintenance for five years. The Blighter radar can operate over land and water rapidly searching for intruders as small a crawling person, kayaks and even low-flying objects. In its long-range modes the Blighter radar can rapidly scan an area in excess of 3,000 km² to ensure that intruders are detected, identified and intercepted before they reach critical areas.
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