The ISR Systems business of UTC Aerospace Systems continues to secure new customers for the DB-110 tactical reconnaissance system, and will be briefing potential customers on two follow-on developments here at Farnborough. Meanwhile, it has been busy integrating its high-end SYERS and MS-177 imaging sensors on new U.S. platforms.
The Royal Jordanian Air Force is set to become the 10th F-16 operator to opt for the centerline, pod-mounted version of the DB-110, which was the world’s first dual-band day/night airborne sensor. Poland last week deployed four F-16s carrying DB-110 pods to Kuwait, from where they will support Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq and Syria.
The sensor can also be found on Saudi F-15s. Other versions have been mounted on larger aircraft, such as the P-3 maritime patroller in Japan and the Global 5000 business jet in India. In a unique transatlantic partnership, UTA Aerospace Systems offers ground stations from its UK-based subsidiary to receive, process, exploit and disseminate the datalinked imagery.
The company is now building the first MS-110, a multispectral upgrade that ISR Systems vice-president Kevin Raftery describes as a logical evolution. “We keep the optics, but upgrade the focal planes, the recorder and the processor,” he told AIN. He expects to secure the first order—from an existing DB-110 operator—by the end of the year.
Also now being built with the company’s own funds is the TacSAR (Tactical Synthetic Aperture Radar) adaptation of the DB-110 pod that was announced here two years ago. This replaces the optics with the Seaspray 7500 radar from what is now named Leonardo’s Airborne and Space Systems Division. TacSAR uses the same aircraft interfaces, downlinks and ground-based exploitation as the DB-110, making it an obvious add-on for customers wanting to collect imagery in all-weather conditions. Like the MS-110, it will be available from 2018.
The DB-110 was derived from the SYERS (Senior Year Electro-Optical Reconnaissance System) that was secretly added to the U.S. Air Force U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft in 1989. After various upgrades, the 10-band multispectral SYERS-2C version is still flown on the famous spyplane. But the U-2 is due to be retired in 2020, in favor of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk UAV.
UTC Aerospace Systems has been helping NG to integrate SYERS on the Global Hawk, and some test flights took place last January. Raftery told AIN that doubts over the Global Hawk’s capacity to process and datalink the large-volume imagery from SYERS were overcome, and a lossless, geo-rectified solution was obtained.
However, UTC Aerospace Systems is hoping that the U.S. Air Force will procure its latest MS-177 long-range multispectral sensor for the Global Hawk instead. Unlike the gimballing SYERS, the MS-177 is a “whiskbroom” design that can scan and sweep a much larger area. Only a few of them have been built so far. One was trialed on an E-8 JSTARS some years ago, and another flew earlier this year on the GA-ASI jet-powered Avenger UAV. The U.S. government sponsored those trials, and will also pay for test flights on the Global Hawk later this year.
