Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) unveiled a new persistent surveillance system that provides a high-resolution situational awareness picture of moving targets, covering a wide area of interest in day and night. Utilizing state of the art EO and IR sensors, AI algorithms, and adaptive rule engines, the system captures large areas at a high revisit rate, enabling tracking, identification, and alerts of multiple moving targets over large areas.
Wasp uses a 3-axes stabilization to enables the collection of sharp imagery even when the platform maneuvers and vibrates. The WASP is configured in a compact, light-weight (6.5 kg) low-power consuming system, that complies with various aerial platforms from tactical UAVs, drones, fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, to tethered surveillance balloons.
“By providing a highly detailed intelligence picture in a wide area, WASP provides excellent two-layer situational awareness that comprises both visual and intelligence information.” IAI Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Military Aircraft Group, Moshe Levy, noted: “As a compact and light system, it can be mounted on a range of platforms to provide strong intelligence capabilities already on the tactical level.”
WASP’s field of view covers 52 by 48 degrees. Actual area and resolution change according to the platform’s operating altitude. Mounted on a tactical UAV such as the BirdEye 650D, WASP covers 2 square kilometers from an altitude of 6,000 ft, providing optimal resolution (15 cm) to detect all types of moving targets. When mounted on a male UAV such as the Heron 1, loitering at 20,000 ft, the coverage area expands over 20 square kilometers to detect mostly vehicle size objects and the like (50 cm).
The system is configured with an optional airborne Digital Processing Unit (DPU) that employs advanced data and image processing algorithms for automatic detection, classification, and tracking of objects of interest in the monitored area. Wasp provides simultaneous visual and IR imaging enabling analysts to view the entire area and specific windows of interest.
