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BAE unveils system to integrate manned and unmanned platforms
September 9th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Antonie Boessenkool
LONDON – BAE Systems said Wednesday at the DSEi show they have developed a mission control system to allow commanders to integrate unmanned platforms into missions effectively without interfering with the operations of manned platforms.
The system will allow commanders to plan and later revise missions that include air- and land-based unmanned platforms in real time as the situation develops.
BAE funded the development of the system internally and has carried out real-world and synthetic trials of the system, BAE said. The trials, which took place last year in the United Kingdom and Australia, used the system to command a convoy using a mix of manned reconnaissance vehicles, unmanned aircraft and an unmanned ground vehicle.
Under the system, as threats are identified during the mission, commanders pass control of the unmanned platforms to other commanders, BAE said. For example, control can be passed between the battlefield commander, convoy commander and drivers of the manned reconnaissance vehicles while real-time images are sent back to the commanders, allowing them to change the route of the convoy and unmanned vehicles to avoid threats.
Tags: BAE Systems, dsei, unmanned
BAE expands vehicle vision system with Army order
September 9th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Antonie Boessenkool
BAE's Check-6 infrared or color camera is incorporated into a vehicle's taillight structure to give visibility outside the vehicle.
BAE Systems announced Wednesday a $10.7 million order from the U.S. Army for 338 camera and sensor systems for visibility outside armored vehicles.
The systems, called the Driver’s Vision Enhancer Family of Systems, are a combination of infrared sensors, color cameras, displays and vehicle integration kits that provide wider visibility outside the vehicle.
“We find that as vehicles become more armored, they have challenges with visibility,” said Gary Morris, business development manager of Soldier and Vehicle Solutions at BAE, in announcing the order at DSEi.
“We would like to be able to allow the troops to stay under that armor to the maximum extent possible, but while doing that we’d also like to be able to allow them to still sense that environment as if they weren’t under the armor.”
Several of the elements of the systems are already deployed on vehicles in theater. For example, BAE’s Check-6 vision system, an infrared or color camera mounted in the tail light assembly of vehicles, is on Bradleys and Strykers. But the family of systems extends the systems to four variations for 17 different Army and Marine Corps vehicles, including mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, medium tactical vehicles and high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, Morris said.
“In past years, DVEs were only allocated to the very high-value vehicles, the combat vehicles,” Morris said. “But as we’ve seen in theater … the vehicles that are always getting shot up is the lower-valued, let’s say more affordable (vehicles). So they need some of these capabilities at a very affordable level for vehicles aside from the very high-end combat vehicles.”
The program has a maximum value of $1.94 billion and a performance period of five years. DRS Technologies, part of Italian firm Finmeccanica, is the other contractor for the program. The contract comes from the Army’s Communications Electronics Command Life Cycle Management Center.
Tags: BAE Systems, driver's vision enhancer, dsei, vehicles
BAE Systems gets first order for Q-Sight display system
September 9th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Antonie Boessenkool
LONDON – BAE Systems announced Wednesday that the U.K. Ministry of Defence has ordered 12 of its Q-Sight helmet-mounted displays for the Royal
The Q-Sight system displays information from a thermal weapon sight onto the lens in front of the user’s eye. This system aboard the antisubmarine ship H.M.S. Somerset, at the DSEi conference, is a prototype.
Navy, the first order for BAE of the new sighting system.
The Navy will use the displays on its Lynx Mk8 helicopters, BAE said at the DSEi conference. The system takes images from sensors and other data sources and displays them in front of the user’s eye in an attachment to the helmet. It uses a holographic technology to inject the image into a thin transparent lens.
BAE started development on this technology two years ago and has been marketing it for both commercial and military pilots as a tool to reduce fatigue and cut the need for large lens systems in the cockpit. But the Royal Navy will use the 12 systems for rear gunners in its helicopters. The Navy’s Q-Sight will project the image from a machine gun-mounted thermal weapon sight onto the display mounted on the gunner’s helmet, allowing the gunner greater range and movement.
BAE will deliver the 12 systems to the Navy by May 2010, and they will be fully operational at the time. BAE will deliver initial systems to the Navy at the end of 2009 for training.
Chris Colston, director of international business development for defense avionics, declined to give a value for the contract in announcing the sale Tuesday.
Tags: BAE Systems, dsei, Q-Sight