BAE Systems and Thales Optronique have received a £20 million ($28 million) contract for the UK/ France Joint Airborne Navigation and Attack (JOANNA) technology demonstrator programme.
Negotiations for Italy and Spain to join JOANNA are due to be concluded soon, which will double the funding available for the programme. BAE and Thales are also contributing funding. JOANNA will be used to develop technologies for a next generation targeting system - the Airborne System for Target Recognition, Identification and Designation (ASTRID) - that is scheduled to enter service by 2010.
Allan Colquhoun, JOANNA project manager, says the key aim is to develop an electro-optical pod which can be used against multiple mobile targets. This will have fully automated operation and active imagery of the target for recognition and identification.
JOANNA is also to develop technologies that will give future targeting pods capabilities in the air-to-air and air-to-sea arenas as well as the usual air-to-ground role.
Colquhoun says the system will reduce pilot workload, a particular issue with single-seat fighters, while improving mission effectiveness.
Thales Optronique project manager Vincent Gilbert says JOANNA flight trials are due to start in 2005 with a system mounted on the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency BAC One-Eleven testbed. The testbed is also equipped with a radar for a follow-on data fusion demonstration programmes.
The UK will concentrate on the pod's front end, including the imager and the tracking system; France, the image processing.
Source: Flight International
