US defence giant RTX feels that advanced electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors are now well positioned for detecting unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), missiles, and aircraft at extreme ranges.
In the past air forces relied on radar for long-range detection. While effective, radar emissions can betray the location and presence of the emitting platform, offering adversaries the opportunity to take countermeasures. By contrast, EO/IR does not produce such compromising emissions.
RTX provides the sensors for a range of platforms, including fighters, with its AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR sensor for combat aircraft, as well as EO/IR equipment for high-end UAVs such as the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems family, and the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton.
Torrey Cady, vice-president electro-optical infrared solutions at RTX, says that the company’s EO/IR sensors have evolved since the global war on terror, given the need for new EO/IR capabilities in the era of great power competition.
Cady, speaking with FlightGlobal at the Avalon air show, says the company’s EO/IR systems are being optimised to operate in contested airspace. In recent decades, for example, a General Atomics MQ-9 equipped with an EO/IR sensor could get away with flying at medium altitude with a predictable flight path.
“Our products coming out of the war on terror were not necessarily suited to the type of ride that they would have in contested airspace, so we’ve developed some enhancements here,” says Cady.
He gives the example of the TacIRST EO/IR pod RTX developed for the Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter. The company is also working on an air-cooled electro-optical distributed aperture system that can be used aboard low-cost collaborative combat aircraft.
“The other thing is range… we’ve also been developing very long-range EO/IR capabilities that enable a platform to stay outside of contested airspace but see far enough to see ahead of our frontline assets and identify the enemy and tell the frontline assets where the enemy platforms are.”
While the aperture size of the EO/IR sensors deployed on combat aircraft will affect detection ranges, large aperture systems aboard aircraft operating beyond contested airspace offer significant passive detection capabilities.
“Where you’re not limited by [radar cross section], that’s where long-range ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] is such a key thing, because if you’re outside of contested airspace, you can fly slow and level and have a much bigger aperture to see all the way to the horizon.”
Cady says that this technology allows an aircraft to operate outside contested airspace and identify and track targets “hundreds of miles” away.
Cady also sees huge potential for hyperspectral imaging, which allows the detection and identification of materials using their unique spectral “fingerprints” instead of traditional visual resolution.
