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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
Lockheed shows TPS-79 radar at DSEi
September 8th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Antonie Boessenkool
The TPS-79 radar developed by Lockheed Martin and Easat
LONDON – Lockheed Martin displayed its TPS-79 multi-mission surveillance radar system at DSEi, aiming at attracting customers looking for a quickly-deployable radar that can be a gap-filler for unsurveilled air space.
The next-generation medium-range system can be set up in less than 60 minutes and is comparatively light-weight, being made out of carbon composites, Lockheed and Easat representatives said. It can be a ground-based fixed or transportable system.
Lockheed teamed with U.K. radar antenna and systems maker Easat to build the system. Easat designed and builds the radar, while Lockheed provides the electronics, transmitter, receiver and trailer to transport the radar.
The two companies are aiming to compete the system for the United Kingdom’s Joint Military Air Traffic Systems contract, a GBP 2 billion deal to overhaul and run the military’s air traffic control infrastructure. Other competitors could include VT Group, Serco and Thales. Raytheon, BAE Systems, EADS and Selex could also be competitors, said Jim Bunnell of Lockheed at the show.
So far, Columbia has bought three of the systems, and one system is deployed with each of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, Bunnell said. An African country Burrell wouldn’t name has ordered three, and an unnamed European country has ordered 19 systems, he said. Lockheed and Easat also are eyeing military competitions expected in the next 12 months in Germany and the Netherlands, Burrell said.
The system has a “3-D” capability, Bunnell said, meaning it provides not just range and azimuth information, but elevation information too.
The radar has a range of 100 nautical miles as a surveillance tool and 80 nautical miles as an air traffic control system, Bunnell said.
Raytheon introduces SPY-5 radar
September 8th, 2009 | DSEI 2009 | Posted by Antonie Boessenkool
LONDON – Raytheon presented its new SPY-5 ship-based radar, still under development, at the DSEi show Tuesday.
The radar is an advanced phased-array X-band multi-function radar for naval surface combatants using features already available on other radar systems from Raytheon and other manufacturers, though in a smaller and more affordable system, Raytheon said. It can track multiple targets simultaneously, illuminate up to four targets at once and enables the “full performance” of the Evolved SeaSparrow missile, Raytheon said.
“It’s very effective for low-flying targets and quite effective as a horizon-search radar. The fact that it’s a multi-function radar allows it to do that function while it’s tracking targets or missile engagements and also while it’s doing terminal eliminations,” said Rick Wayshville, a senior engineering programs manager at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.
“Traditional systems today are typically mechanically-directed systems,” Wayshville said. The SPY-5 system would replace those mechanical directors with a passive-array system, with about half the weight of similar systems. Wayshville declined to name a price range, but said it would be no more expensive than similar systems.
It would be suitable for “any ship pretty much,” including carriers, off-shore patrol vessels and frigates, he said.
Raytheon has funded development of the SPY-5 internally, in part with the intention of exporting it, Wayshville said.
“We see it as having major market potential,” he said. “It’s competitively priced. More and more often, we are finding that navies around the world are strapped financially.
“The components that you’ll see that we’ve used in this system are fairly simple components. We’re reusing parts that have already been implemented internationally, successfully, very effectively. Ensuring that we have no issues with the ability to market the system internationally has been important to us.”
Raytheon began the SPY-5 development a year and a half ago, Wayshville said. The company expects the full system to finish development in the latter part of 2010, he said.