US Air Force and Army set to use UAVs to protect convoys from snipers and mines
The US Air Force is about to deploy Boeing Scan Eagle unmanned air vehicles equipped with “shot spotter” sensors to protect its convoys in Iraq. The US Army also plans deployment of new hyperspectral “bloodhound” payloads to Iraq for its AAI Shadow 200B tactical UAVs from early 2006 to support detection of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and newly laid mines along convoy routes.
The Scan Eagle-based system was developed by the USAF UAV Battlelab under its force protection and convoy support demonstration programme. The air segment comprises an acoustic detection sensor coupled to a camera system with a real-time downlink to a command vehicle in the convoy. Sniper fire is instantly detected by the acoustic sensor, which cues the camera system to the co-ordinates from which the gunfire originated. The system also provides a near real-time datastream back to the convoy command and control operations centre.
The “bloodhound” system is based on the BAE Systems Talon Radience II hyperspectral sensor, comprising an imaging sensor, a high-resolution digital framing camera and adaptive spectral processing and identification system software.
Images are fed to a ground-based processing station and displayed in near real-time in “waterfall” format. Changes to ground surface patterns, possibly indicating a newly laid mine or IED, and pre-identified object hyperspectral signatures are highlighted in the display by changes in colour. Specific targets of interest can be investigated further using the framing camera. A prototype system has been under test since mid-2004 by the Army tactical UAV programme office.
BAE Systems is working with AAI and the US Army to fit the payload into a gimbal mounting the same size as the Taman POP 200/300 infrared and electro-optical sensor carried by Shadow. First production units are expected to be completed late this year.
PETER LA FRANCHI/SYDNEY
Source: Flight International
