The Office of the US Secretary of Defense's Rapid Reaction Technology Office is planning a demonstration of miniature synthetic aperture radar-based coherent change detection, with a view to determining whether to launch an acquisition effort for small unmanned air vehicles.
The Rapid Technology Office released a request for information on 11 October advising that it wants to conduct non-competitive technology comparison of systems already "engineered to be carried aboard a UAV, or [that] will have that capability within six months from the RFI date".
The document says the demonstration "will collect ground truth data specifically regarding coherent change detection based on processing of synthetic aperture radar imagery. Data collected from this demonstration will be post processed and analysed utilising CCD algorithms to ultimately determine the tactical utility of CCD for use in military operations.
"Based upon the outcome of this demonstration, a decision will be made as to whether or not to proceed with development of a real time SAR CCD capability to ultimately be carried aboard a small UAV." Responses are due by 25 October.
The proposed use of CCD points directly to interest in using tactical UAVs in counter improvised explosive device roles in the short term.
Systems already at a sufficiently mature stage of development to support the proposed demonstration include the EADS MiSAR, ImSAR's NanoSAR, Sandia National Laboratories' MiniSAR, and the Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems PicoSAR.
The US Army, which operates the largest fleet of small UAVs in the US military inventory, has been studying options for a SAR capability for its Textron AAI Shadow 200 tactical systems on an ongoing basis.
The US Navy and Marine Corps have also shown interest in a SAR capability for their planned common Tier II tactical UAV system, tenders for which are due for release in the latter part of 2008.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
