Hughes is preparing to take its HISAR (Hughes Integrated Surveillance and Reconnaissance System) flying demonstrator on a world sales tour covering up to 20 countries over ten months.
The HISAR system, mounted in a Raytheon Beech Super King Air 200, is undergoing final shake-down flights before beginning a domestic US demonstration tour in May.
Up to 100 demonstrations are expected to be given to government and defence agencies, although, with the exception of the Royal Australian Air Force, none of their identities are being revealed.
The HISAR is based on a low-cost X-band synthetic-aperture radar for most of the real-time airborne reconnaissance and surveillance work, although the full-up system will be augmented with a dual-band electro-optical / infra-red sensor developed from the system used in the Lockheed Martin U-2/ SYERS. Additional systems include a Hughes AAQ-16 forward-looking infra-red sensor, as well as a Dassault ESM-L8 electronic-warfare subsystem.
Source: Flight International
