Long Range Thermal Imaging
Security is Knowing Where the Adversary is
and the Farther Away the Better. Owning the
Night From Long Range is Part of the Answer.
by Adam Baddeley
SOTECH Correspondent
Long range thermal imaging capabilities often systemized as part of a multi-sensor solution, have had to match the stand off ranges necessary to support the surveillance ranges enabled by higher altitude platforms and new weapon systems in the combined targeting and surveillance role as well as taking coalition platforms outside the threat envelope of increasing sophisticated enemy weapon systems.
Circumstances have also seen TI solution, proliferate to additional platforms on the ground and in the air as high-end capabilities once reserved for specialist roles become necessary for the conduct of everyday missions. In Afghanistan for example, poor ambient light levels have limited the use of image intensification solutions, obliging the greater use of TI. This has seen TI solutions on helicopters, once effectively limited to MEDEVAC and special operations platforms, begin to proliferate across the wider transport and utility fleet. New roles too are also being found.
In the same vein, prolonged desert operations mean brownouts upon landing are responsible for most rotary wing aviation accidents and TI solution are being are often coupled with other specialized obstacle-detection/ avoidance systems to give the user enhanced situational awareness.
The Wescam MX series of gimballed EO/ IR turrets have been developed around a few core technologies which allow the user to install a wide variety of sensor combinations within a single stabilised package, according to Norm Boese, vice president for sales Americas at L-3 Communications Wescam. Wescam’s MX-15 for example has been selected for use with USSOCOM’s proposed fleet of Project Liberty ISR aircraft, a three squadron fleet of twin-engined turboprops. In July its announced deliveries for Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) using its MX products Airborne Reconnaissance Low (PM-ARL) and the Persistent Threat Detection Systems to support the counter-IED and -insurgency role in Iraq and Afghanistan
“We have pretty large installed base of MX-15 and MX-20 that are already out there in the market place,” explained Boese. “We wanted to develop a camera that is a drop in replacement and we have spent a lot of effort in developing very small HD cameras that fit right behind the optics that are already in our systems. That has been the focus of our recent sensor developments and we have delivered them in both the MX-15 and MX-20. Most recently we have included true 1080P HD cameras in our systems.”
Typically a MX system consists of an IR camera, a zoom TV camera and very long range spotter camera. “Historically we obtained cameras from various commercial entities and then turned them into something that will operate over the full military range of temperatures and environments,” said Boese. “But because of obsolescence and unique performance requirements we are taking what we have learned in our IR cameras and building our own EO cameras. What is unique about the digital system that we offer is the camera can provide video outputs in all types of formats: 1080I, 1080P, 720P and 720I and standard analogue definition outputs, at the same time with advanced processing to support very long range imagery.”
This flexibility allows Wescam to install these cameras as retrofits into existing systems. Boese said, “Not everyone is HD ready. There are many platforms that can’t find an affordable monitor or recorder that can work with HD”. Boese cites the example of UAVs who may be able to record in HD but don’t have access to a data link to send that in real time. Boese said, “Post mission they will have really high definition imagery recorded for analysis, but in flight they will squeeze what they can through the pipe. In the future however when they can squeeze higher bandwidth through the pipe, the turret is already ready to do that.”
To save volume on the MX-15 for smaller platforms, Wescam have integrated the off board electronics unit into the turret itself, creating a single LRU, the MX15I. Boese said, “The customer has a single unit they can put on and off a UAV or helicopter. They don’t have to find a place in the aircraft for another box. This also results in a 30-50 lbs weight savings versus any other turret in this performance category. There are a lot of benefits to a single LRU, creating a complete system that is nothing but a turret.”
In regards to future technology, the company have won successive competitions to develop active gated laser imaging for AFRL based on the MX-20 used to overcome issues with haze and get very long range performance. Boese explained, “Active gated technology works by sending out a laser pulse. The pulse hits the target then comes back and you take a snapshot of the image just as the laser return hits the detector. If you just use a continuous laser beam and try to shine that energy at the target, you are going to illuminate all the haze between you and the target rather than the target itself. It’s like turning on high beams in fog. Active gated systems allow you to cut through the fog and identify the target day or night.”
Ultimately, however, improvements in performance are arguably secondary to reliability. “Customers engaged an active wars are very interested in their stuff working”, explained Boese. “We have spent a considerable effort over the past four years in trying to drive the MTBF to levels that I would not have thought possible a few years ago.”
Boese cited Wescam’s work with the MX-15 on the Navy’s P-3 Orion Critical Obsolescence Program (COP) “We started off in 2005 with a process that said if any turret failed in under 300 hours, we declared it an early field failure and got a team working on it, figuring out why it failed and making changes to the process and product. Pretty soon we weren’t seeing anything coming back under 300 hours so we raised the threshold to 500 hours and repeated the process. Today we categorize anything that fails under 1000 hours MTBF is an early field failure. This continuous process improvement has translated into significant reliability improvements for customers in the field. For instance, the MX-15s in the P-3 COP fleets are now experiencing 2800+ hours MTBF. That represents a 10 fold improvement over the system that the MX-15 replaced which was the primary objective of the P-3 COP program.
MANNED AND UNMANNED
Raytheon has a long heritage of building electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) solutions for militaries, including the special operations community. In the past, these include the AN/AAQ-16 on board such platforms as AH-6J Little Birds and MH-60L/K Black Hawks, and the larger AN/AAQ-18 FLIR installed on large platforms such as the MH-53 Pave Low III and MC-130E Combat Talon aircraft. It’s more recent multi-spectral targeting system (MTS) has been selected for use on unmanned and manned aircraft with NSWC Crane acquiring variants for use with the Predators, Reapers and Navy SH-60s.
Today, the turret market is going in different directions to meet both situational awareness and targeting requirements according to Neil Peterson, director for strategy and business development, ISR systems, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.
To date, the primary mission for the manned and unmanned platforms being served by Raytheon-sourced turreted EO/IR sensors is using the surveillance derived from EO/IR sensor for targeting and operational mission support rather than simply situational awareness (SA).
Peterson explained, “What makes our products a cut above the rest is our ability to target precisely at long ranges. There are many excellent products that provide a navigation or SA capability, but when it comes to crunch time, with our sensors, you have something that has the clarity, the visual acuity to identify a particular target. Before you can take the appropriate actions, you have to accurately comprehend what is going on.” Peterson identifies two factors going forward; first is extended range, either to maintain acuity at longer ranges to improve survivability and reduce susceptibility of detection or to improve acuity at current stand off distances. Peterson gave the example of the shift in operational focus from Predator and MTS-A to the MTS-B on board the Reaper, “which offers twice the formers effective range, but without being twice the size.”
“The MTS-A and -B are applicable for both manned and unmanned platforms. MTS–A weighs 155 pounds MTS-B is 100 pounds more,” Peterson explained. “It is a bigger ball because it has longer focal point, but the interface and gimbal are the same. You could take an MTS-A off a platform and hook in an MTS-B immediately. The only difference is size because of the range requirement.”
The second factor is the need to meet requirements for tactical UAVs operating at brigade and below. “They are a different animal. Their local SA requirements are driving sensors into smaller form factors, moving from a 12-inch turret down to an 8-inch turret,” said Peterson. “I would say that over time we will probably see more targeting applications coming into those platforms as the technology grows and the warfighter adapts and develops the relevant tactics for that tactical level of mission and force protection.”
Multi-spectral fusion within the EO/IR systems is a key differentiator. Raytheon are also in the midst of developing what Peterson describes as “a unique tracking technology. We have a program now called Vivid that allows you to simultaneously track four different targets in the same scene. To my knowledge, we are the only company that has demonstrated that capability to date. We call it a multi target tracking capability. Everybody talks about that from a radar standpoint and understands how to do that, but that is not something we’ve seen yet in the EO/IR market.”
Raytheon’s advanced distributed aperture system (ADAS) developed with U.S. Army Night Vision Electronic Sensors Directorate, and first shown publicly at AUSA 2007, gives pilots a seamlessly fused SA picture from distributed sensors on the aircraft, providing 360 degree spherical coverage of the platform, fed straight to the pilot’s helmet display.
Raytheon has been demonstrating ADAS over the past year on rotary wing aviation. Peterson said, “The product we have now is flight tested. We’ve put this on a Black Hawk and flown it with multiple pilots to get feedback. ADAS is at the point where a pilot can ‘look’ through the floor to the landing zone and through the copilot to see their buddies flying in formation. We are now trying to work out how that technology applies to brown out, wire detection, and other situations and environments.”
To provide SA for aircraft flying close to objects just feet away the sensor quality has to be exacting—and the clarity in HD. Peterson said, “A lot of people talk about HD SA, but most people who talk about it do so in the visible spectrum, in 720p, and in the daytime. We are working on 1080i HD that is not only in the visible EO spectrum, but also the infrared domain for what we call true HD in the IR domain. This is on an aircraft now doing real time imagery where a pilot can actually pilot the aircraft in a night time environment.”
FLIR Government Systems is a prolific supplier of EO/IR products to U.S. SOF. From June to August this year alone, the company announced three contracts with the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Crane Division, collectively valued at up to $89.4 million.
Two of the three awards were made in support of Crane’s acquisition of Long Range Ground Mobility Visual Augmentation Systems (LR-GMVAS) Program and the short range equivalent, the SR-GMVAS. This will equip ground vehicles with an all-weather, day/night, high-resolution, thermal imaging capability in both stabilized and unstabilized iterations. The majority of FLIR’s funding— nearly $50 million has been allocated to the SR-GMVAS requirement which is being met by an undisclosed variant of the Recon III. The balance of will go on smaller numbers of the AN/ KAX-1A forward-looking infrared System. The Recon III handheld family has several variants. The Recon III LocatIR for example uses two sensors including a 640x480 three fields of view ranging from a wide 15 to 11.3 degrees down to narrow at 2.5-1.8 degrees and has a number of automatic feature including auto-focus and digital detail enhancement. The system supports up to 2.5 hours of continuous operation.
The integration of two thermal imaging cameras within the Recon III are noteworthy in its class for enabling for simultaneous wide-angle and long-range observation, allowing both IR and TV images to be viewed in a split-screen mode and allowing the user to rapidly toggle between sensor types.
Earl R. Lewis, president and CEO of FLIR Systems, Inc. said, “FLIR is committed to providing our military customers with outstanding infrared systems in support of critical missions. We are pleased to be working with NSWC Crane to supply these vehiclebased systems to our nation’s ground forces.”
FLIR has not disclosed its solution for the recent third contract Special Operations Visual Augmentation Systems (SOVAS) Handheld Imager-Medium Range (HHI-MR) systems. ordered in June designed to provide medium range thermal binoculars and will support ongoing special operation force missions for surveillance and reconnaissance.
BAE System’s first major sale of night vision equipment to the Naval Surface Warfare Center has been its August $50 million IDIQ award for the Driver’s Ground Mobility Visual Augmentation System (DR-GMVAS). The system will equip both combat and tactical wheeled vehicles special operations forces, proving close in situational awareness.
The system provides enhanced forward and rearward visibility— side views are being addressed through other acquisitions outside DR-GMVAS—with imagery integrated with either new or pre-existing driver’s displays, depending on the specific vehicle fit.
Billy Billimoria, director business development BAE Systems’ sensor integration business in Austin, Texas explained, “We are looking at added capabilities for asymmetric urban warfare, to meet the challenges that are now in demand for the conflict at hand. We are trying to put more eyes, outside the vehicles so folks in combat can remain under armor.”
The smarts in the system are the fusions of inputs from two imagery sources—visible and near-infrared and long-wave infrared. Billimoria explained its advantages.
“With DR-GMVAS you do not need to change from one sensor to another. Fused imagery enables the user to discern the observable features from both parts of the spectrum. As a result, users are better off in reactive time as they travel and maneuver. That’s a very good edge in the operation and capabilities.”
The technology for DR-GMVAS is a development of the technology underpinning the company’s Check-6 tail-light mounted thermal camera system. Billimoria explained that the Check-6 system has passed development and qualification stages and will shortly enter production for the U.S. Army for expected use on tactical and combat vehicles.