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14 Jul 14. Raytheon UK has detailed its plans for supporting the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its requirement to extend the capability of the RAF Sentinel beyond its proposed out-of-service date of 2015. The current plans for the lifetime extension through 2018 of Sentinel capability will see a number of key investments to both maintain current capability and the delivery of potential improvements to support a broader utilisation of the platform. These improvements include Sentinel’s ability to more effectively support surveillance in the maritime domain, through the incorporation of software enhancements to the current dual mode radar, over the next two years. Raytheon is also reviewing the ground segment support to the platform to better deliver the capability on contingent operations. The current Contract Logistics Support (CLS) is being better tailored with the MoD in order to meet the projected and varied commitments of Sentinel on operations around the world.
“Through tremendous teamwork, Sentinel has delivered a pivotal capability to the UK’s armed forces since its entry into service,” said Richard Daniel, Raytheon UK chief executive. “Raytheon, in support of the Air ISTAR Optimization Study, has submitted options to extend the capability further to include additional sensor payloads, including long range EO/IR and SIGINT.”
Sentinel has been continually deployed since entering service on operations including Afghanistan, Libya, Mali and now Nigeria, and is acknowledged as a true wide-area surveillance capability for national and multi national operations. Key are implementation of a maritime Mode to the dual mode radar, Satcom system upgrade, and changes to the extant CLS contract to better support the requirements of Sentinel post 2016.
14 Jul 14. UTC Aerospace Systems and Selex ES plan to jointly develop the TacSAR (Tactical Synthetic Aperture Radar) reconnaissance system, a long-range synthetic aperture radar system designed for overland and maritime reconnaissance and surveillance. UTC Aerospace System builds ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) systems for space, air and land applications. The company’s DB-110 EO/IR reconnaissance system is used worldwide on tactical jets, maritime patrol aircraft and business jets. Kevin Raftery, vice-president ISR & Space Systems, UTC Aerospace Systems stated, “this agreement with Selex, with their AESA (active electronically scanned antenna) radar technology will provide an all-weather system that complements the DB-110 reconnaissance system. More than a dozen countries operate our DB-110 recce pod and can integrate the TacSAR pod seamlessly into their existing operations using the same aircraft interfaces, real-time data links and intelligence exploitation systems.”
16 Jul 14. BAE Systems unveiled its Striker® II Helmet-Mounted Display (HMD), a fully digital solution that provides today’s combat pilot with exceptional night vision and target tracking technology, integrated within a visor-projected system. With decades of combat-proven experience, the new platform-agnostic Striker II HMD builds upon BAE Systems’ current Striker HMD, which has been successfully deployed on Eurofighter Typhoon and Gripen fleets. Delivering breakthrough abilities for night combat, the Striker II brings its high performance digital night vision camera inside the helmet, which helps reduce g-force effects on the pilot’s head and neck to improve comfort, and eliminates the need to manually configure and adjust night vision goggle (NVG) hardware for day-to-night transitions. With its binocular visor-projected display performance, the new system integrates a center-mounted ISIE™-11 sensor based on Intevac Photonics’ patented advanced imaging sensor technology, known as the electron bombarded active pixel sensor (EBAPS™). This