Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout Deploys Unmanned Ground Vehicles
Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout Deploys Unmanned Ground VehiclesFebruary 25, 2010
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Fire Scout Vertical Unmanned Aircraft System (VUAS) demonstrated how the U.S. Army and other land forces could rely on its ability to ferry unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and other logistics items into combat zones during the Army's recent Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) at Fort Benning, Ga.
Fire Scout demonstrated how the soldier can rely on its multifunctional capability for force protection, reconnaissance surveillance target acquisition (RSTA) and communications relay that only a VUAS of its caliber can provide.
During the AEWE, Fire Scout flew to a named area of interest,
surveyed the area to ensure it was clear, and landed autonomously
within its pre-planned landing point. When Fire Scout's on-board skid
sensors detected contact with the ground, a command was sent to release
the unmanned ground vehicle. Seconds later, Fire Scout ascended and
then loitered at a higher altitude to observe and provide a relay for
commands between the UGV and its controller.
"Use of an unmanned system to carry other unmanned systems into
battle could improve the speed of operations while protecting U.S.
lives," said Al Nikolaus, program manager of land-based Fire Scout at
Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "This demonstration
provides another example of Fire Scout's maturity, reliability,
flexibility, and its ability to operate successfully with currently
deployed systems."
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Technorati Tags:
Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), US Army
Northrop Grumman Brings Internet to the Skies of Army Exercises
Northrop Grumman Brings Internet to the Skies of Army ExercisesFebruary 24, 2010
Company's Fire Scout Unmanned Aerial System Delivers Critical Communications, Enhanced Situational Awareness to Remote Ground Troops
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -– Soldiers participating in the U.S. Army's recent Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE), Ft. Benning, Ga., were able to acquire unprecedented levels of knowledge about their surroundings thanks to the battlefield imaging and communications relay capabilities of Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Fire Scout vertical unmanned aerial system (VUAS).
Hovering 4,000 feet above the battlefield, Fire Scout offered
soldiers both high fidelity video imagery produced by its electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor, and assured, Internet-like chat, file sharing and data transfers enabled by a Raytheon-produced communications payload.
"Fire Scout's delivery of assured communications to AEWE participants demonstrated yet another benefit of using vertical unmanned aerial systems to support warfighters, particularly those operating in remote, rugged territory," said Al Nikolaus, Northrop Grumman's Land-based Fire Scout program manager.
AEWE is an annual Army exercise designed to give soldiers a look at emerging battlefield technologies and concepts of operation. In addition to Fire Scout's communications relay demonstration, the VUAS was used to support cargo resupply missions and to ferry other types of unmanned systems to troops operating in remote areas.
For the communications relay missions, Fire Scout was equipped with a Mobile Ad hoc Interoperability Network GATEway (MAINGATE) communications payload. Installed in a pod attached to Fire Scout, the payload relayed communications among ground troops, allowing them to share high quality video, voice and data communications in real time.
Northrop Grumman also fed Fire Scout's EO/IR surveillance imagery into the MAINGATE network in real time, allowing soldiers to benefit from the VUAS' "perch and stare" view of the AEWE battlefield.
According to Nikolaus, one of the most significant aspects of the communications relay demo was how fast the payload was integrated on Fire Scout and flown successfully on multiple AEWE missions: from start to finish, the process took less than three months; installation, check-out and first flight of the MAINGATE hardware at AEWE took just one day.
"The success of the MAINGATE demo reinforces the maturity and versatility of Fire Scout's modular design," said Nikolaus. "Backed up by Northrop Grumman's expertise in unmanned systems, the system can deliver a lot of capability to the warfighter in very short order."
Fire Scout is an autonomous, unmanned helicopter based on a Sikorsky Aircraft commercial airframe. Equipped with a variety of EO/IR and communications payloads, it can provide high levels of situational awareness and precision targeting support to U.S. armed forces for more than five hours at a time. Fire Scout can take off and land autonomously on any aviation-capable warship, and at prepared and unprepared landing zones in proximity to ground troops. Its ability to operate at low ground speeds allows it to move with warfighters in the field, and easily acquire and track targets in complex and urban terrain. It can also perform 'dull, dirty, or dangerous' missions, thereby protecting soldiers from harm's way. Northrop Grumman is developing Fire Scout vertical unmanned systems for a variety of U.S. and international military customers.
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Technorati Tags:
Information Technology, US Army
Technorati Tags:
Information Technology, Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), US Army
Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout Unmanned Aerial System Demonstrates Critical Resupply Capability
Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout Unmanned Aerial System DemonstratesCritical Resupply Capability
February 15, 2010
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has successfully demonstrated that its MQ-8B Vertical Unmanned Aerial System (VUAS) can resupply U.S. or coalition troops deployed on a combat mission.
The company conducted the autonomous proof-of-principle
resupply capability during the current Army Expeditionary Warrior
Experiment (AEWE) at Fort Benning, Ga. AEWE gives soldiers a first-hand
look at emerging technologies and concepts.
"Fire Scout's ability to deliver supplies autonomously
demonstrates its readiness to support troops in the field," said Al
Nikolaus, program director of land-based Fire Scout at Northrop
Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "It also highlights one of the many
advantages of a vertical unmanned aerial system. We have matured this
capability and we're eager to support our warfighters in theater with
the resupply of small-unit logistics that is so vitally needed."
For the AEWE mission, Fire Scout had two ruggedized containers
attached to external pylons. Fire Scout flew autonomously from take-off
to the cargo drop to landing. The VUAS also used its
electro-optical/infrared optical payload during the mission to practice
reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition (RSTA) techniques.
The ability to conduct simultaneous RSTA and logistics missions is
another unique Fire Scout capability.
Fire Scout is equipped with a payload interface unit, which
allows it to release the cargo pod without the presence of a soldier.
Fire Scout observed the landing area to confirm the area was free of
obstacles and personnel prior to landing. Upon landing, Fire Scout's
skid sensors detected contact with the ground. Upon touchdown, the
autonomous mission was preplanned for release of the cargo pod and
seconds later the aircraft took off again to continue its RSTA mission.
"Fire Scout's ability to operate at low ground speeds and
operate in remote, unprepared landing zones allows it to move with
warfighters in the field and easily acquire and track targets in
complex and urban terrain," said Nikolaus. "It's fully autonomous, and
swiftly performs the dull, dirty and dangerous missions without putting
soldiers in harm's way."
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security
company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products,
and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems,
shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial
customers worldwide.
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Technorati Tags:
Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
EchoStorm Releases Next Generation Software for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance — Press Release
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Events, ISR, IT, Press Releases, S&T, development program
EchoStorm Releases Next Generation Software for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
adLib Gives High and Low Bandwidth Users Unparalleled Access to Full-Motion Video and Data
Suffolk, VA – EchoStorm Worldwide, the global leader in video and data management technology, today announced the release of its latest product version, adLib 3.6, the company’s pioneering video and data management software for improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
The new version boasts unmatched capabilities for capturing, indexing, archiving, searching, and disseminating full-motion video (FMV) and associated data. The software can process a range of data formats to give low bandwidth users access to low-fidelity, situational awareness FMV and high bandwidth users access to high-fidelity, exploitation FMV.
“adLib supports both situational awareness and exploitation users better than any other ISR software in the marketplace,” said David Barton, President and Chief Technical Officer at EchoStorm. “By giving a wider range of users access to high impact, near real-time ISR, it becomes an indispensable force multiplier in the national defense and intelligence communities.”
adLib’s new features include the following:
§ Federation: Enabling access to content within the enterprise and across enterprise borders.
§ Open standards (WS-I) compliant Web service interfaces allowing for third-party integration.
§ Enhanced support for Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB) standards including:
o Standard 0601.3 UAS Datalink Local Metadata Set.
o Standard 0604 Time
o EG 0104.5 Predator UAV Basic Universal Metadata Set.
§ New UAV platform supported:
o Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout support.
§ Chat ingestion: Allowing one or more chat rooms to be captured, indexed, searched, and related to FMV content. Both IRC and XMPP are supported.
§ New hardware options to greatly reduce power, space, and cooling requirements (including rugged configurations).
§ New Web-based mapping capability that supports multiple user selectable layers which can be configured to point at any WMS compliant server, including Pixia’s nuiGeoServer.
§ Support for FMV based mosaic imagery from EchoStorm’s adLib Image Processing Engine (aIPE) product.
adLib’s upgrades include:
§ Improved CDF support.
§ Improved geo-search accuracy.
§ Enhanced clip cart functionality allowing a number of clips to be selected and downloaded as a single clip.
§ Improved metadata quality and performance of data manipulation.
About EchoStorm
EchoStorm Worldwide LLC is the global leader in video and data management technology. Its products provide defense, intelligence, and supporting agencies with a single, aggregated point of access to all their full-motion video (FMV) and geospatial information. With this access – and the ability to interface with most standards-based systems – EchoStorm technology has become a force multiplier while increasing the reach of analysts and forward-deployed operators to high-impact, near real-time Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) data.
EchoStorm is headquartered in Suffolk, Va., and it is a subsidiary of Earl Industries LLC.
For more information about EchoStorm Worldwide LLC, visit www.echostorm.net.
###
Raytheon-Developed Unmanned Ground Control System Completes Major Milestone — Press Release
Raytheon-Developed Unmanned Ground Control System Completes Major Milestone
Adding Tactical Control System will enhance future Navy missions
FALLS CHURCH, Va., Nov. 19, 2009 /PRNewswire/ — Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) achieved a key milestone for the U.S. Navy as the Tactical Control System (TCS) was deployed recently on the USS McInerney to support a counternarcotics mission in Central America as part of the MQ-8B Fire Scout program.
“This truly is a critical milestone on our road to success toward a full fleet introduction on Littoral Combat Ships,” said Capt. Tim Dunigan, U.S. Navy. “Deploying Fire Scout aboard the USS McInerney will allow for the continued maturation of our system while increasing the warfighting effectiveness of the ship.”
The U.S. Navy TCS system provides an opportunity to develop a low-risk, low-cost and effective common ground control system for full range of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) across multiple agencies. TCS is the only system that exhibits key enablers such as common system framework, open documented interfaces and air-certified software, while giving the government unlimited rights necessary to develop UAS control across the spectrum of missions, applications and air vehicles.
“This is a huge step for the TCS program,” said Ravindra Nirgudkar, program manager for Raytheon’s Tactical Control System. “This deployment solidifies TCS’ position as the future ground control system not only for the U.S. Navy but also with other services.”
Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems is a leading provider of intelligence and information solutions, specializing in ground processing, unmanned ground systems, cybersecurity solutions, homeland security and other markets to resolve the most complex problems for its customers worldwide. IIS had 2008 revenues of $3.1 billion and employs more than 9,000 engineering and technical professionals worldwide.
Raytheon Company with 2008 sales of $23.2 billion, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 87 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 73,000 people worldwide.
Contact:
Keith Little
703.849.1675
Source: Raytheon Company
Fire Scout has successful RSTA/ISR demo
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman says its land-based MQ-8B Fire Scout aircraft system has marked a milestone following a recent demonstration in Arizona.
US Navy continues production of Fire Scout
Filed under: Contract Awards, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Navy, development program
The MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV made by Northorp Grumman for the Navy entered LRIP last year with a successful Milestone C decision. The Navy has continued production by executing the second year of Low Rate production. The Fire Scout lands and takes off vertically and can operate from the helicopter decks of Navy ship. The system will enter Technical Evaluation this year. The contract is worth over $32 M and is the second of three years of LRIP. Once LRIP and testing is complete the Navy will conduct a Full Rate Production decision to allow the Navy to buy larger quantities with a proven system. The US military has invested heavily in USV over the last ten years with some successes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
See the press release at MarketWatch.com
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