BAE Systems to lead imaging system program

NOVEMBER 8, 2007--BAE Systems (www.baesystems.com) has received an $18.5 million, 30-month contract from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a new class of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems and capabilities. The company will lead DARPA's Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program. It will develop, integrate, and demonstrate advanced ISR systems and capabilities for wide-area persistent monitoring. The systems are targeted for use in Department of Defense unmanned and manned surveillance platforms.

"Shortfalls in persistent surveillance continue to challenge US forces across many theaters of operation," said John Antoniades, director of remote sensing technologies for BAE Systems' Advanced Technologies group. "The ARGUS program will provide a sorely needed, persistent, and robust surveillance capability for many existing ISR airborne platforms."

The program's goal is to develop a compact system combining a multigigapixel, high-resolution sensor; wide-field optics; an ultrahigh-bandwidth, real-time airborne processing system; and a ground station for interactive multitarget designation, tracking, and exploitation. The airborne processing system can simultaneously and continuously detect and track the presence and motion of thousands of small or large targets over an area covering tens of square miles.

"This next generation of real-time surveillance systems will increase wide-area, high-resolution collection capabilities by one to two orders of magnitude over current airborne assets," said Steven Wein, director of optical sensor systems for BAE Systems.