Indigo Systems to deliver IR sensors for F-35 Joint Strike Fighters

MARCH 19--Indigo Systems (Goleta, CA; www.indigosystems.com) has been awarded a major contract by Northrop Grumman Corp., Electronic Systems, to deliver infrared (IR) Integrated Detective Assemblies (IDAs) for the 21st century F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. The F-35 is a multirole, supersonic stealth aircraft designed for the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as for several foreign partners.

The F-35 program represents a US military procurement contract with an estimated value of more than $200 billion over the life of the program. Northrop Grumman is a key member of the Lockheed Martin JSF team that won the Defense Department contract in 2001. The plans are to provide more than 3000 F-35s over the life of the program to the US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and UK Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. Other international customers are expected to order as many as 2300 additional aircraft.

Indigo Systems will design, develop, test, and deliver the megapixel-class IR IDAs for the Distributed Aperture System (DAS) on the F-35. The DAS will utilize a number of separate sensors, each containing IDAs, strategically mounted on the JSF aircraft to support various mission functions. The DAS sensors will capture real-time imagery, which will then be stitched together by an image processor to provide streaming video footage that can be displayed on the pilot's helmet-mounted video monitor.