Sensors

General Atomics has recently conducted a flight demonstration of two Avenger unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), each equipped with Lockheed Martin’s Legion Pod IRST21, an Infra-Red Search & Track pod designed to detect aerial targets at long range, without using radar.

Unlike the larger and heavier drones that operate like manned aircraft and are bound to airfields or other complex launch and retrieval systems, small UAS are optimized to work and support operators at the tactical level. Aeronautics' Orbiter family of Mini UAS (MUAS) and Small Tactical UAS (STUAS) is designed specifically for those missions.

To achieve Terrain Dominance through technology overmatch, IMCO Industries combines platforms, sensors, and effectors developed in-house by its subsidiaries, affiliates, and partners. These systems are offered as upgrades of existing systems and equipping new platforms, to embrace the opportunities and challenges of the 21st-century battlespace.

At IDEX 2021, Ophir will be showcasing its wide range of long-range IR zoom lenses, designed for both Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) & Mid Wave Infrared (MWIR) applications. The star of the display will be Ophir's award-winning, ultra-long-range zoom lens, the SupIR 50-1350mm f/5.5, suitable for VGA and XSGA format cooled MWIR optical systems.

RAFAEL’s INDOOR autonomous surveillance capability is taking this capability to a new level, by enabling a group of unmanned systems to map and inspect indoor spaces, enabling warfighters to explore structures suspected to be occupied by the adversary, without exposing humans to the dangerous house clearing and Close Quarters Battle (CQB).

In a trend to improve wide-area persistent surveillance (WAPS) beyond existing capabilities, three defense industries from Israel unveil groundbreaking, lightweight WAPS systems designed for small, tactical unmanned aerial systems (STUAS) at the Singapore Airshow. These platforms are designed to operate with tactical forces and provide intelligence support to the units in direct contact with the enemy.

The Raytheon Company announced it has been selected to provide the US Army with its next-generation, 360-degree capable radar – known as the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS). Deployment of sensors like LTAMDS is expected to close the vulnerability of sectorial air defenses that was clearly demonstrated in the failure of Saudi Arabian air defenses to detect and warn of the Iranian cruise missile attack.

The UK Ministry of Defence has chosen Leonardo/Thales protection system to protect the RAF Shadow ISTAR fleet. This single-source selection by the MOD follows the recent SALT III international trials hosted by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration in Sweden. There, the integrated Miysis/Elix-IR system, using a jamming waveform developed by the UK MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, proved its ability to defeat Infra-Red missiles in live-fire exercises.

IAI introduced today the 'POPSTAR', a persistent surveillance sensor using an EOIR camera array to automatically detect and track small, flying or moving targets in the air and on the ground, track those targets and designate the targets deemed suspicious and dangerous for engagement by countermeasures and weapons.

RADA unveils at DSEI 2019 two new radars addressing the acute threats that land forces are facing in the modern battlefield. Both radars - the aCHR and xMHR, provide the central sensor element in mobile active protection capabilities - both APS and mobile SHORAD, are based on the company’s modular software-defined radar platform.

LKF601E, an airborne FCS AESA radar from the Chinese Aviation Industry Cooperation (AVIC) was unveiled at the AirshowChina event. The new radar is designed for new and upgraded platforms such as the JF-17 and FTC-2000G ‘export fighters’. uses a 3GHz bandwidth at the X-band, provides detection of fighter-sized targets at 170 km, tracks up to 15 targets simultaneously and engages four with air/air missiles. The radar also supports air/ground modes, with one-meter SAR resolution and terrain mapping at 300 km. Searching targets at sea, the radar can detect large targets from 200 km.

DARPA calls for proposals to study tools to enable soldiers to operate and control swarms of up to 250 collaborating bots. Such swarms will be able to support soldiers fighting in an urban area, providing critical situational awareness, understanding, and decision making.

Israel's tactical radar pioneer RADA Electronic Industries reported new orders worth US$5 million for two variants of its mobile radars, the Multirole Hemispheric Radar, employed in Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM), Counter UAV (C-UAV) and Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) applications.

The Defense Material Organization (DMO) of the Netherlands announced the selection of Vectronix AG, Switzerland (a subsidiary of Safran Electronics & Defense) to supply more than 1,000 handheld thermal sights for the Dutch Army.