US Navy conducts cross-platform ASW demonstration

Telephonics has announced today that the US Navy has conducted an exercise to demonstrate several anti-surface warfare (ASW) concepts of operation using an MH-60S Sierra helicopter in conjunction with a Fire Scout Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The company made the announcement 14 May, 2012.

The exercise included the use of Telephonics’ multi-mode, maritime surveillance radar on the MH-60S. The company said that the demonstration took place at the Chesapeake, MD Test Range, and it highlighted the ability of the radar to ‘rapidly perform wide-area surveillance and to automatically detect and track surface contacts over wide areas’.

The radar is designed to provide helicopter crew with a surface surveillance picture, so that targets of interest can be classified using the high resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imagery from the radar and to direct the Fire Scout to specific contacts of interest for identification with its on-board electro-optic/infra-red (EO/IR) sensor. 

Telephonics explained that these EO/IR images were also linked back to the Sierra via an L-3 Communication Systems West VORTEX data link providing them with valuable tactical situational awareness. Additionally, the MH-60S linked both radar
information (Tracks, ISAR, and SAR (synthetic aperture radar) imagery) and
EO/IR full motion video, again via the VORTEX data link, to the Patuxent River
Surface/Aviation Interoperability Laboratory (SAIL).

For the demonstration, the Fire Scout was provided by the navy, and Lockheed Martin coordinated the industry team to install equipment on board the MH-60S, including the Telephonics radar and the L-3 VORTEX data link installed on both the MH-60 Sierra and MQ-8B Fire Scout. All data coming from Fire Scout was transmitted and received via the L-3 data link.