UV Online
AUVSI: ITT delivers Gorgon Stare payload
ITT has delivered its Wide-Area Airborne Surveillance (WAAS) sensor system to the US Air Force ahead of its proposed deployment as part of the 'Gorgon Stare' programme later this year.
Speaking to Unmanned Vehicles at AUVSI on 26 August, ITT officials said a 'few' systems had been handed over to the air force for integration onto MQ-9 Reaper UAS. According to industry sources, this will provide operators with an eight kilometre surveillance window, although ITT image scientist, Bernard Brower was unable to confirm this.
However, Brower said the five-camera WAAS or Gorgon Stare payload would allow multiple ground operators to gain access to imagery from up to 12 different angles at the same time at rates of 16 MegaPixels per second for each camera. This compares to regular day/night cameras which are capable of processing around two MegaPixels per second, Brower explained. This is achieved, he said, by slowing the rate of frames per second from between 24 and 30 down to two.
'Our aim is to stabilise, mosaic and deliver regions of interest to ground operators and the next step will be tracking targets and [providing] aerial fences. We are developing a processing box, out in the start of 2011, with algorithms for these purposes' Brower told UV. He added that this capability would then be integrated into the existing WAAS payload.
Other future additions could include Light detection and ranging and other hyperspectral systems in order to develop 'different concepts for multi-sensor detection', he continued while describing three main mission areas for Gorgon Stare: Real-time situational awareness; forensic analysis; and real-time forensics.
Part of the air force's Increment I for Gorgon Stare, Brower said a second increment of the programme was yet to be defined; '[WAAS] is a hundred times better than high-definition [imagery].'
Currently, the US Army and Marine Corps use Constant Hawk and Angel Fire payloads on manned aircraft for a similar capability in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gorgon Stare is described as an improvement on Angel Fire, according to ITT.
By Andrew White, Denver
Email this to a friend.