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Flight Landata has intro'd their dual-swath electro-optical (EO) capability to the BuckEye aerial imaging system at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation GEOINT Symposium in Nashville. The Dual-Swath BuckEye EO system collects twice as much ultra-high-resolution imagery in a single flight line, providing greater efficiency in data collection and processing.
The EO portion of the BuckEye is a light-weight imaging system that can be flown aboard UAV, fixed wing, or rotor wing aircraft to acquire large-format natural-color imagery with centimeter-level resolution. Since 2007, Flight Landata has been flying the BuckEye aerial imaging system under contract to the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (Army TEC) to acquire ultra-high resolution imagery for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and mapping activities on behalf of U.S. military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. By doubling the swath width of every image scene, Flight Landata has tailored the Dual Swath system to be safer and more efficient, especially in ISR-related missions collecting high-resolution georeferenced images of point targets and lines of communication with one collection pass. Larger collection areas per flight line mean the aircraft is in the air for shorter periods during acquisition, or it can cover a greater area in a given time. In addition, image processing is faster as there are fewer flight lines to fuse during mosaicking and orthorectification.
Development of the Dual-Swath BuckEye EO represents another investment made by Flight Landata into the continued improvement of the system. Earlier this month, Army TEC extended the Flight Landata contract for another year of BuckEye operations in Afghanistan. Applications of BuckEye imagery in war zones have included photogrammetric mapping, change detection, and 3D terrain mapping.
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Raytheon UAS Demo By Subs
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport, demo'd an unmanned aircraft system capability for submerged submarines on Sept. 10. The program, called Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities, simulated the submarine launch of a specialized UAS for collection of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information in a complex littoral environment.
During the demonstration, two submerged launch vehicles were deployed over the side of a surface ship. The vehicles descended to 80 feet, reverted to positive buoyancy, floated to the surface, stabilized in variable sea states, aligned into the wind, and then launched an inert representative UAS at precise orientation and velocity. "SOTHOC provides submerged submarines with the ability to use unmanned aircraft systems and will increase commanders' situational awareness and provide clarity to a fogged battlespace picture," said Ken Pedersen, Raytheon Missile Systems' vice president of Advanced Programs. "In future demonstrations, we will deploy a UAS from an actual submerged submarine and evaluate its performance in the maritime interdiction mission."
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Skeldar UAV Heads To The Green Hills For Systems Software
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) and the Naval Undersea Saab's Skeldar UAV is a fully autonomous, lightweight, unmanned helicopter that can hover and perform vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) with a minimum of field preparation or additional equipment.
The system is designed to support military as well as civil operations, national and international missions, and to operate during day and night. Potential applications include target acquisition and designation, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare. Weighing 150kg, Skeldar has a maximum speed of 100km/h, 4-hour operating endurance and a range of up to 100km. Saab has now selected Green Hills Software, Inc. who provides device software optimization (DSO) and real-time operating systems (RTOS) to supply their INTEGRITY operating system in the Skeldar UAV. Saab also selected Green Hills Software's MULTI debugger and the Green Hills Probe for use in the development of the UAV's redundant flight control unit, which was based on the Freescale MPC5554 microcontroller.
Satnews Daily
December 31st, -0001
UAV ADVISORY