DECEMBER 1--Goodrich Corporation (Princeton, NJ, USA) has been awarded a contract from the US Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab (UAVB) at Nellis Air Force Base (Nevada) to develop and fabricate a short-wavelength infrared (IR) sensor for the Spectre-Finder initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to rapidly demonstrate the potential of a small, air-launched and recoverable Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to provide off-board sensing in support of future Air Force Special Operations Command concepts of operation.
Under the terms of the contract, Goodrich's SUI team (www.oss.goodrich.com) will develop a SWIR camera payload assembly. The technology involves includes a 640 x 512 indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) camera, custom dual field-of-view lens, and laser pointer for use in day or night operation allowing reliable imaging and performance in any weather or environmental conditions.
Marshall J. Cohen, Vice president and general manager of the SUI team, stated, "We are pleased to have been selected to work on this program, giving us the opportunity to leverage our expertise in InGaAs SWIR imaging technology to deliver an enhanced sensor assembly to the Air Force. Our team will be leveraging other InGaAs programs from the US Army, Navy, and DARPA to give the Air Force the most sophisticated SWIR camera, maximizing the performance while maintaining a very low weight and compact assembly."
Goodrich Corporation is a supplier of systems and services to aerospace, defense, and homeland-security markets. For more information visit www.goodrich.com.
