General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI), a leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), tactical reconnaissance radars, and electro-optic surveillance systems, today announced that it successfully demonstrated additional features of the Maritime Wide Area Search (MWAS) mode of its proven Lynx® Multi-mode Radar during the recent U.S. Navy Experiment Trident Warrior 2012 (TW12) held off the coast of Southern California in July.
Integrated aboard a Predator B® RPA surrogate (King Air 200), Lynx MWAS demonstrated its ability to detect and image very small vessels, including fast boats, sail boats, and fishing boats. GA-ASI’s Claw® sensor payload operator control software cued the Lynx MWAS radar to targets in coordination with the Navy’sAquaQuIPS multi-INT, ship track data fusion engine developed by Jove Sciences, Inc. (JOVE). AquaQuIPS generated a Common Operational Picture (COP) by utilizing intelligence retrieved from multiple systems, including Claw.
“GA-ASI’s primary goal was to provide day/night Lynx radar and EO/IR [Electro-Optical Infrared] data on maritime targets in support of the AquaQuIPS Fly on Top Operation [FoTO] objective,” said Linden Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, GA-ASI. “We succeeded in measuring the ability to cue the RPA, using information from multiple national resources, to locate specific targets and to transmit image/video data back to the shore C2 data-fusion site and GCCS-M [Global Command and Control System-Maritime].”
The missions, including a real-world night surveillance flight, were executed with success and demonstrated the ability to provide situational awareness and surveillance data of a large littoral/maritime area, and to detect, classify, and identify maritime targets in various weather conditions. GA-ASI also achieved a historical first by demonstrating Lynx MWAS’ ability to support anti-piracy and counter-narcotics missions by detecting hard to find targets and relaying their imagery with metadata back to Navy commanders for dissemination and action.
Capable of a 30-degree per second scan rate with algorithms optimized for detecting small vessels, including Self-Propelled Semi-Submersible (SPSS) vessels, Lynx MWAS has also been demonstrated successfully on an aerostat. The MWAS mode, along with a three-fold increase in the Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) area coverage rate and a new SAR-aided alignment mode, has been incorporated into Lynx radars deployed by U.S. customers over the past two years.
Source/Author: General Atomics
Photo: General Atomics