Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES
DETAILS OF THE reconnaissance suite, on the US Department of Defense's, Tier II Plus high altitude endurance unmanned air vehicle, (UAV) have been revealed by Hughes Aircraft.
The UAV, which is being developed by a Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical-led team for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, will carry a Hughes-made synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), and an electro-optical system using third-generation infra-red (IR) sensor technology.
Operators will be able to select among the radar, IR and visible-wavelength imagery modes, and use the radar simultaneously with either of the other two sensors.
The X-band SAR is largely based on hardware from the Hughes-made HISAR commercial reconnaissance system, as well as elements of the ASARS-2 side-looking radar used on the Lockheed Martin U-2.
The electro-optical system has a Hughes third-generation IR sensor and a digital Kodak charge-coupled-device camera. The IR sensor incorporates a 3-5 micron, mid-wavelength indium-antimonide staring focal-plane array with 480 x 640 detector elements.
The camera, itself, features a 0.5-1 micron wavelength silicon 1,024 x 1,024 staring focal-plane array, with nine micron pixels operating at 30 frames.
Both the radar and electro-optic-systems are equipped with Litton-made inertial systems for accurate pointing. A Litton LN-200 inertial-measurement unit (IMU) sits on the electro-optical gimbal, while a LN-100G inertial-navigation system, with an embedded global-positioning system (GPS), is located on the gimbal base of the X-band radar antenna. Highly precise geo-location data provided by the Litton system also allow targets to be selected from the imagery.
The Litton system, is also used on the Tier II and Tier III "DarkStar" UAV, being developed by a team led by Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. The UAV is also equipped with a Honeywell BG1232 integrated flight-management unit, but not with Honeywell-made IMU and embedded GPS receiver, as stated in Flight International, 14-20 June.
Source: Flight International
