WASP improves high-resolution situational awareness
The Wide Area Surveillance Payload is designed to operate with tactical UAVs and crewed aircraft for persistent wide-area surveillance.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has developed what it described on 8 February as a ‘ground-breaking aerial surveillance system for persistent wide-area monitoring’.
Developed by Tamam (the EO/IR division of IAI), the Wide Area Surveillance Payload (WASP) can be is installed on a broad range of aerial platforms such as tactical UAVs, crewed aircraft or balloons, to deliver persistent surveillance capabilities.
WASP offers wide FoV coverage (52x48 degrees) with narrow FoV resolution in a compact SWaP solution. It features simultaneous colour visible and mid-wave IR imagery, allowing continuous operation by day or night.
Mounted on a tactical UAV such as the BirdEye 650D, WASP covers 2km2 in optimal resolution at 6,000ft altitude to detect all types of moving targets. When mounted on a MALE UAV such as the Heron 1 (pictured), the area of coverage area expands to more than 15km2 at 20,000ft.
WASP weighs 6.5kg in its baseline configuration, but an airborne digital processing unit (DPU) can be added with AI algorithms and adaptive rule engines that help WASP to capture large areas with a high revisit rate.
With the DPU, WASP can track, identify and alert the system operator of moving targets that correlate with mission requirements and objectives.
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