A new leading edge surveillance system has today been trialled in a commercial aircraft developed as a testbed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.
Defence Minister Robert Hill inspected the testbed aircraft which is fitted out with leading edge radars and infrared technology. The trial aims to develop concepts to improve Australia's future intelligence gathering capabilities during Defence operations.
Defence Minister Robert Hill inspected the aircraft that has been kitted out with the new highly advanced surveillance system developed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).
“DSTO are continually improving and developing new tracking and radar systems and this project is all about putting this technology to the test in an aircraft to see how it performs in the field on operation,” Senator Hill said.
“The trial will then determine how this technology can be used by Defence during military and surveillance operations to gather more detailed and accurate intelligence.
“Detailed intelligence is critically important in any Defence operation or mission which is why it is an exciting project with major implications for Defence systems in the future.
“The aircraft's multi sensor system is designed to carry out a wide range of surveillance tasks at once to increase the scope of intelligence that can be gathered from one aircraft.”
The system, known as the ISR Testbed (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance), has combined several of the latest technologies being developed by DSTO into one system to test how they work together and the benefits this new capability has for Defence.
Senator Hill inspected the high tech ground station before being taken on a flight in the testbed aircraft from RAAF Edinburgh, north of Adelaide, where DSTO scientists explained how the system works in the air.
The Raytheon Beech 1900C aircraft would typically fly at an altitude of 7500 metres during a mission and has radars and sensor which are able to track a target on land as well as sea.
The system includes the latest visual imaging electro-optics technology, hyper-spectral imaging and electronic intelligence systems.
The information gathered on the aircraft is then relayed live to a ground station which has the ability to process and analyse the data at the same time as it is being gathered.
The ground station is based on the technology used during the Australian deployment of the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in 2001.
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Defence Minister Unveils Advanced Airborne Surveillance System
