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Warrant
Officer David Gelling explains the operation of an electro-optic
video sensor to Dr Bruce Ward, of the Defence Science and
Technology Organisation.
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TRIALS
are being conducted on a leading edge surveillance system fitted
in a commercial aircraft to develop ways of improving Australia’s
intelligence gathering capabilities during operations.
The surveillance system, known as the ISR
(Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) Testbed, includes the
latest visual imaging technology, hyper-spectral imaging and electronic
intelligence systems being developed by Defence Science and Technology
Organisation (DSTO).
Defence Minister Robert Hill inspected the testbed aircraft at
RAAF Base Edinburgh on September 1.
“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.
“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 Raytheon Beech 1900C aircraft would typically fly at an altitude
of 7500m during a mission and has radars and sensors that are
able to track a target on land as well as sea.
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 Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle
in 2001.
